


Adventures in Kaiju-Sitting

by greywolfheir



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-05
Updated: 2013-12-05
Packaged: 2018-01-02 19:02:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 25,250
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1060422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greywolfheir/pseuds/greywolfheir
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Baby Otachi (codename: Tantō) wakes up, leaving Newt with a handful of baby kaiju to raise. Assigned to help him is an out-of-work kaiju-killer, Raleigh Becket. What could possibly go wrong?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Introduction/Notes

 

 

_For the Pacific Rim Big Bang 2013_

_Art by starfoozle (starfoozle.tumblr.com); Beta'd by Loki (lokineko.tumblr.com)  
_

_No copyright infringement is intended. Pacific Rim is not my property and there is no intent of financial gain through this work._

I originally wrote this fic as a focus on Newt, who was my favorite character from the second he popped up on the screen. It was also to give myself an excuse to look at kaiju biology in more detail. As a wildlife biology major myself, the accuracy and detail that went into the kaiju blew my mind, so I  _had_ to know more about it. Honestly, if I messed up on the scientific accuracy of anything,  _please_ message me so we can talk about it and I'll probably edit it so that it is accurate. Seriously, accuracy is a major part of this fic!

Raleigh kind of popped in as I was planning. That means that while the pairing isn't necessarily in the background, it is important to note that there are heavy science details that are hard to ignore. Just giving you guys a heads up. As for the pairing itself, I have a post giving my reasons to ship it that I will happily link you to. In this fic, the Mako/Raleigh relationship is interpreted as platonic rather than romantic.

It is also **very** important to note that the novel adaptation of the movie has more detail about the science of kaiju, and therefore there is a heavier focus on details from the novel adaptation than from the movie. I tried to make sure I wasn't throwing information at you that wasn't mentioned in the movie but mistakes do happen. If you're confused about something, message me about it and I can explain and will probably explain it the fic as well.


	2. Part I

“You’ve done a great deed, everyone. The Rangers may have destroyed the Breach, but you were the ones who got them there. We couldn’t have done it without your work. And your work? Well, it saved the world. I can’t give you more than that.”

Newt couldn’t help but laugh at Herc’s—no, _Marshal Hansen’s_ —words. From anyone else on any other day, he might have rolled his eyes. Newt was still in the LOCCENT with Herc, who was broadcasting his speech through Tendo’s microphone, looking down at the crowd of Shatterdome residents. It was just hours after the Breach had been destroyed. Mako and Raleigh had sacrificed a lot, but he, Newt, had been as instrumental to Operation Pitfall as they had. Yes, it was a huge blow to the PPDC—and Chuck and Marshal Pentecost would be missed (Newt hadn’t ever talked to Chuck, but he supposed Herc losing a child was worth mourning)—but they had died for a great cause, and they probably wouldn’t have changed a thing. It was a time for celebration, and a celebration called for the one in charge to make a speech. Newt figured he should probably be paying more attention to that speech.

“Now I know what you’re all wondering,” Herc continued. “What happens now? Right? As far as I can tell, we can still learn a lot from these kaiju. Our weaponry has advanced more in the last two decades than it has in 90years. If you’re willing, we will continue our research…”

Newt stopped listening again. _Research will continue?_ As in, he still had a job? As in—wait, how was he supposed to study kaiju when there were no more kaiju around? Newt’s thoughts immediately flashed to Baby Otachi. It had been a while, but could he still have access to it? But surely Hannibal’s men had already gotten to it…or had they? Maybe they stopped working without a leader, and they were left not knowing what to do. And maybe they had started the process of preservation but they hadn’t started harvesting. Maybe a freshly-dead, preserved kaiju was just waiting for him to look at.

Newt turned to leave, almost immediately followed by an annoyed Hermann. But really, when was Hermann ever _not_ annoyed?

“What are you up to now?” Hermann demanded.

“We can continue research, right?” Newt began. He was in a hurry, but he subconsciously slowed down for his disadvantaged colleague. “So that means there’s a brand new kaiju lying on the street that I’m still allowed to study!”

A loud huff erupted from Hermann. “You believe those black market hooligans have kept it intact? It’s probably been torn to pieces by now.”

“Well, we’ll have to see then won’t we Doctor Downer?”

Newt wasn’t looking but he could practically feel Hermann rolling his eyes. They were no longer connected by the Drift hangover—when minds stayed connected post-Drift—but Newt didn’t need that to sense Hermann’s disapproval. Still, there was _nothing_ that would get between him and this opportunity. Well, except maybe some black market dealers looking to make some money off drugs for male potency.

 

* * *

 

As it turned out, Baby Otachi had indeed remained intact. The black marketers had disappeared but left behind most of their equipment. Apparently after Hannibal Chau died, they were all less focused on work and more focused on who was now in control…or something. Newt wasn’t sure. All he cared about was having a fresh kaiju, which was immediately sent to his lab. Herc apparently decided to retract the contract Pentecost had made with Hannibal, as both were deceased, meaning that all kaiju remains once again belonged to the PPDC, and Chau’s operation was cleared out. Newt did not envy the crew that had to get back the remains. He did, however, enjoy the fruits of their labor. Oh, yeah, he _definitely_ enjoyed the fruits of their labor—those fruits being the most beautifully preserved kaiju specimen on the face of the planet. Still, nothing topped a completely intact kaiju youngling.

When Baby Otachi finally arrived, it took all of Newt’s willpower not to dance in excitement. He was a terrible dancer and normally ignored that fact, but he had a kaiju to study—not to mention a colleague who would file a report on him for it.

“Hello, Baby Otachi,” Newt said, pressing his nose against the glass of the chamber that held the kaiju. It was filled with ammonia, similar to how the rest of the kaiju organs were preserved, and it left Baby Otachi floating like a test-tube alien. Newt might have decided that seeing a kaiju wasn’t as great as it sounded—in fact, it was terrifying—but he was still enchanted by this one. It was actually almost cute and besides, dead kaiju didn’t attack you and eat people.

“Apparently, it’s been named Tantō,” Hermann said from across the room.

Newt didn’t look away when he asked, “Isn’t that a type of short sword?”

“Tendo Choi has a sense of humor,” Hermann said. He hadn’t taken his eyes off his blackboard. He had stayed on to figure out as much about the Breach as possible—specifically, how it was made.

“Tantō…”  Newt said, gazing at the specimen, taking in its blue skin, its undeveloped fringe and the small bumps on its nose that would soon be its horns. Tantō was a pretty cool name but kind of useless since it was dead anyway. Still, at least it wasn’t as much of a mouthful as Baby Otachi. At any rate, he needed to get to work actually doing something with this specimen. Newt stepped away but almost immediately froze again.

“Where am I going to start?” Newt asked his thought out loud. “I mean do I take readings? How can I get an MRI on this thing? I’m not even sure I have enough time to take it out to do an autopsy—“

“Why don’t you start with the brain, since that’s what you were so determined to obtain in the first place?”

Newt whipped around. Hermann was used to Newt talking out loud. It tended to happen when Newt got excited, and Newt was a very excitable person. Never, though, had Hermann offered suggestions beyond shutting up or otherwise not being annoying. But Hermann simply continued to write on his blackboard. Newt narrowed his eyes at his colleague before he turned around. Maybe Hermann was finally opening up to him. After all, they _had_ been in each other’s brains not even a day ago. Best not to push it then, or Hermann might recede back into his pretentious shell. On to work.

 

* * *

 

Newt narrowed his eyes at his the papers on his desk and looked up at Tantō. Then back at the papers and back at Tantō. Then narrowed his eyes again.

“No way,” he whispered. Then louder, “No freggin _way_.”

As if he were suddenly electrocuted, Newt leaped out of his chair and circled the tank. “Dude, I put probes in your head. I _hammered_ probes into your head. How… _how is your brain still active?_ ”

Because it was. According to the EEG Newt ran just moments before, Tantō’s brain activity was off the charts. And not just it’s-a-kaiju-so-it-automatically-has-high-levels-of-everything off the charts. All of Newt’s equipment was modified to compensate for the massive readings. The very first brain Newt had Drifted with had given off these exact reading. Newt _knew_ that brain was alive enough to put in a kaiju and still function—which meant Tantō _had_ to be alive…or Newt was wrong with the first brain and this was the proof. No, he refused to believe that. Maybe the ammonia in Tantō’s tank had somehow recharged Tantō’s cells? After all, the kaiju parasites were soaked in ammonia and that kept them alive. Maybe it did even more for the kaiju.

“If I can just find a way to wake you up, you’d be fine in no time,” Newt thought aloud. “Or maybe there’s something wrong with you that’s not letting you wake up, and I can fix that. I wonder if an electric shock would—“

Before he could run more tests—maybe even some on his own brain so that he could calibrate the machine—he heard the stomping rhythm of a crazy mathematician coming up behind him.

“What did you just say?” Hermann demanded.

Newt whipped around. “Hermann, we’ve talked about this! You don’t cross the line unless you ask _express permission_. That was your rule!”

“Were you attempting to wake this kaiju up?” Hermann yelled.

“Now, Hermann, there’s really no need to yell—“

“You’re talking about waking a kaiju up! You want to keep a living, breathing kaiju alive! The same kaiju that nearly killed you and _did_ kill Hannibal Chau! You are _insane_. _I have reason to yell_.”

“Oh come on, it was just speculation,” Newt said, though Hermann’s tone was making him really want to make it more than speculation. “Besides, even if I did wake it up, we’re surrounded by technology that’s designed to kill it if it gets too crazy.”

“All that technology was destroyed in Operation Pitfall! Besides, Leatherback took down all of LOCCENT like it was nothing. It is Leatherback’s child as well isn’t it?”

“Well we don’t really know that for—“

“And what are you going to do with it? Its first action was to attack!”

“Yeah but—“

“Can it even survive for long in our world? What will you feed it? _Human_? How are—“

“ _Hermann!_ ” Newt yelled. “Even if I did want to reactivate this kaiju, I’d have to get approval and no one will give me approval anyway. It was _speculation_.”

Both of them stared at each other for a moment before Hermann relaxed and turned around, but not before saying, “Then stop speculating out loud. It’s annoying.”

Newt rolled his eyes and the only thing keeping him from sticking out his tongue was the last strands of his dignity. But his brain was working furiously. So maybe “speculation” was a bit of an understatement. Newt wanted it to come to life, if even just to say that he could do it. _Imagine the possibilities_. But Hermann was right. There were so many things that could go wrong. And he really wouldn’t get approval. Every living Ranger could write ten-thousand word essays on why this was a bad idea, and Mako Mori would be the first in line to hand it in. But a caged kaiju could yield so much information…

 _No_. Newt mentally kicked himself. _I need to go home. Get some sleep_.

So as quick as he could, Newt cleaned up kaiju entrails, and shoved his papers into what barely constituted as a pile before nearly sprinting out of the lab. If he didn’t leave right away he would start doing crazy things. He still made sure to “accidentally” turn off the lights and turn them back on just to annoy a hard-working Hermann. After all, he had crushed Newt’s dreams. The fact that dreams like his _should_ be crushed was irrelevant.

 _I really need some sleep_ , Newt thought as he heard the last snippets of Hermann’s frustration.

 

* * *

 

The next morning, it only took one look at Tantō before the desire to revive him came back. Newt groaned but there was a simple solution. Just put it off until the undeveloped newborn brain would die. Because it had to be undeveloped right? Maybe an MRI would…

_No!_

 Newt turned around and faced his desk, getting to work on the various other specimen he’d received from Hannibal’s hideout. Just organizing the stuff would take him hours. Yes, he _did_ have an organized system, even if _Hermann_ couldn’t see it.

It was indeed hours later when he finished and Newt was exhausted when he finally got to sit down. He spun around in his chair…and was faced with a not-quite-dead kaiju and another chance at being a rockstar of a scientist. Suppressing those desires, Newt decided he could still run some tests to see how responsive it was to simple stimulation without waking up the kaiju. He brushed away the annoying voice in his head (which sounded suspiciously like Hermann) that told him electricity would not only test responsiveness but could also revive Tantō if it was at a high enough power. He had to do _something_ to this kaiju, right?

 

* * *

 

Later in the day, Newt had indeed used electrical probes in the water, but ensured that they were low powered and kept the EEG machine on so he could test spikes in brain activity and stop the tests if the activity got too high. Not a big deal.

But Newt was exhausted from the work he’d done in the morning, and staring at lines moving on the screen was hypnotic. Hermann had taken the day off to help his wife Vanessa, who was expecting their baby any day, so there was no one to keep him entertained during the boring tests. Before he knew it, it was 3 a.m., and Newt was waking up from an unexpected nap.

He sat up, stretched, and rubbed his eyes. Newt went to turn off the EEG machine and the electric probes… _which were on high amperage_. He must have fallen asleep on top of them and pushed just the right buttons. Newt immediately turned them off and looked up at Tantō. He was still floating serenely, but Newt’s heart was racing. He looked over the readings during the time he’d been asleep. There were high spikes, but that was probably the EEG probes detecting the electricity in the water. Newt’s heart slowed down as it looked like nothing had happened.

 _So electricity doesn’t revive a kaiju. Good to know_.

Newt yawned and shoved away from his desk. Admitting it would get him killed—by Hermann if by no one else—but he was a little disappointed. He really thought there was a way to revive this thing. _Oh well, off to bed._

* * *

 

Newt had only gotten two hours of sleep before he snapped awake, his heart racing like he’d had a nightmare. He didn’t really remember having one, but it wouldn’t be surprising. He’d had nightmares ever since Drifting with a kaiju, so he was honestly glad that he didn’t remember this one. He had no desire to see yet another Precursor. After rolling around for another hour, Newt finally decided that enough was enough, and he might as well get out of bed. It wasn’t like the standard-issue Shatterdome beds were all that comfortable anyway.

Newt got up and dragged himself over to the sink where he proceeded to brush his teeth. In the process, he thought for a second that he felt a rumble beneath his feet, but when he stopped brushing, he didn’t feel it again, and he shrugged. Probably just his sleep-deprived mind playing tricks on him. Or weapons testing. The Shatterdome _was_ a military base, after all.

It was only a few minutes before Newt was dressed and ready and he made his way to the hallway. Not many people were up since they tended to work at decent, rigid hours, unlike the two heads of Kaiju Science, but the few people who passed him looked like they were in a hurry and didn’t acknowledge his presence. _Huh, I guess something important is going on,_ Newt thought. Clearly it didn’t involve him or he would have gotten a report weeks in advance, so he didn’t worry about it.

The elevator ride was as uneventful as usual, though there were some freaky sounds that probably indicated that it needed to be inspected. A little scary, maybe, but it would take a lot for the huge elevator to fall. Newt felt oddly great besides that, and even started humming a bit.

He was still humming when the elevator opened to absolute chaos in his lab, which took a few seconds to register. When he did, he froze.

The lab was a mess, and not Newt’s normal mess either. Hermann’s blackboard had fallen over, there was broken glass from test tubes in various places, and there was a huge puddle of liquid on Newt’s side. That puddle was next to Tantō’s tank, which was broken and—more importantly—empty. The tank’s former occupant was very much alive and fending off the various people—some with weapons—who were trying to contain him. Tantō was still getting used to his legs, so he slipped all over the place, but his tail was working fine and he whipped it around to knock a taser out of one woman’s hands with a roar—not as terrifying as Otachi’s but more terrifying than your average German Shepherd. Newt blinked once, then rapidly. He didn’t get a chance to do much after that though, because he was suddenly seized by an outraged Hermann.

“You complete _fool!_ Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”

“I-I…I didn’t mean—he wasn’t…it was an accident, ok!” Newt stammered out.

“Then fix your mistake!” Hermann said, shoving him toward the kaiju.

Newt realized he was shaking when he reached a hand out to Tantō. He inched forward warily, but he knew Hermann was right and he had to fix this.

“Everyone, back away!” he shouted to the people attempting to contain Tantō. They all looked at Newt like he was insane, but he knew they were just making Tantō mad and weren’t really going to stop an angry kaiju. So they stepped back but only because, after Newt had shouted, Tantō’s angry, jerking movements all but stopped as the kaiju stared at Newt. “Yeah, that’s right, buddy. You just stay calm because I’m going to just…well, I don’t really know what I’m going to do, but as long as you stay calm, that’s fine with me. Ok?”

Newt had inched his way forward until he was so close that he could feel Tantō’s breaths on him. Hermann had followed—after all, he’d drifted with the kaiju too, so he could definitely be helpful. When he got within range, Newt swallowed before slowly reaching out with a hand to Tantō’s nose. It felt cool and smooth and still a little damp from the ammonia. With that touch something else happened. It was like trying to figure out a problem and something clicks in your brain—except Newt wasn’t trying to figure out a problem and that click wasn’t just his brain. _Whoa what_? Newt thought. _Whose brain is it, then?_  

Newt swallowed again and looked into Tantō’s eyes and gasped. The kaiju was…happy. Newt didn’t know how he knew that, seeing as how he’d never seen a kaiju be anything but angry, but he just seemed to _know_. And Tantō only had eyes for Newt. Hermann was muttering beside him, but Tantō’s eyes didn’t waver. _Because our brains are connected again_ , Newt realized. Newt knew Tantō was happy because he was getting a direct reading of it from Tantō’s brain.

“Hermann,” Newt said shakily. “Do you—um, can you feel…?”

Newt looked over at Hermann, who slowly nodded.

That made Newt feel a little a little better. At least he wasn’t the only one tuned into kaiju radio. But Hermann had gotten here before Newt had, so why hadn’t Tantō responded to Hermann first? When Newt took his hand away, he noticed that he’d been covering the barest of pockmarks and immediately felt an urge to laugh. He’d been touching the same spot where Hannibal Chau had stabbed Tantō. And that’s when things fell into place for Newt. Hermann hadn’t been there when Tantō had erupted from Otachi’s womb. Newt had. Actually, Newt had been the first person Tantō had seen when that happened, and if kaiju were like any other species of animal then… _Oh God, it’s_ imprinted _on me_ , Newt realized in horror.

Sure, Newt had wanted to revive this kaiju, but he hadn’t counted on a kaiju _imprinting_ on him. _Though you really should have,_ Newt thought as he mentally kicked himself. He saw the mother come straight for him as soon as she broke through the Breach. Why should her offspring be any different? The _real_ problem was that Newt felt no objections to the baby’s imprint.

The thing was, he kind of felt bad for the little guy (little being a relative term). His mother had just died, Tantō had just come _back_ to life, and he was on a foreign planet. Sure, the whole reason he had been there was because he was supposed to kill everyone, but Newt could sense some of the terror Tantō was feeling.

 _Why_ isn’t _he attacking everyone, though?_ Newt thought. _The Precursors are connected to him—they control him. Why isn’t he following their orders? They can still give orders through the breach, can’t they? Wouldn’t he be dead if he was cut off from the hive? His imprint on me can’t be that strong._

Newt looked back up at Tantō, who immediately brightened and gave a little expectant whine like he wanted to be pet again. His thoughts confirmed this, though they couldn’t do much more than that. Newt had gotten so much information from Otachi and even the Drift with Tantō. Then, he’d gotten images, saw what she saw, and heard the Precursor’s thoughts. Now, he was just getting emotion and the barest wisps of what Tantō was sensing.

Newt tried to turn around, but Tantō made a loud, almost angry noise, so Newt turned around and walked right next to Tantō’s eyes, so that when he turned around again, his face was still in Tantō’s line of sight, and he could pet the kaiju. Newt looked out into the lab and was met with the accusatory stares of everyone in the room. Some—mostly scientists who had a vague idea of what was going on, were awed. Most others were terrified, like they thought Newt had some sort of mad-scientist skill that let him control a kaiju. There were a select few who looked downright _angry_ , because apparently, you weren’t supposed to make nice with a kaiju who just destroyed an entire lab. Well, okay, maybe that was a reasonable assumption, but it wasn’t like Newt _planned_ on this.

“I need a place to put this guy—pronto!”

After a moment, one techie spoke up, saying “There’s a place where we test out Jaeger weapons. It’s big enough for a Jaeger, so I figure it’s big enough for a kaiju, and it’s got enforced walls. It should be fine.”

“Perfect,” Newt said, just as he felt a nudge where Tantō had pressed against him. Newt turned to the kaiju. “Ok little buddy, you ready to find your new home?”

He slowly backed away and—just as he predicted—Tantō tentatively took a step forward. Just like an imprinted duckling, he was willing to follow Newt everywhere. There was a problem with the elevator, as Tantō wasn’t so keen on the tight squeeze, but he eventually got in because he refused to let Newt out of his sight. Newt’s brain was screaming _I AM IN AN ELEVATOR WITH A KAIJU,_ but he shoved the thoughts away. Things were overwhelming, but if he lost it now, there would be hell to pay. There was already hell to pay.

As they walked past—Newt slowly leading a timid Tantō—people stared, of course, but not as if they were surprised that Tantō was alive. It was the same accusatory glares he’d gotten earlier, like they were all prepared to see a kaiju but not see it being controlled so loosely. _So that’s why everyone was running around earlier. They all knew. Herc’s gonna kill me_.

Tantō entered the testing room just fine. Just like that, Newt had a newborn kaiju on his hands. It could kill him in an instant if it wanted, but it was under Newt’s control for the most part. There was so much responsibility thrust upon him today that Newt felt like he was drowning in it.

 _One step at a time_ , he thought, taking a deep breath.

Right. That meant making sure this kaiju was happy and that meant…

Newt turned back to the expectant Tantō. “Dude, what do you even eat?”

 

* * *

 

“Doctor Geiszler!”

Newt jumped, almost pulling a Hermann and saluting but managed to catch himself. “Uh, yeah?”

“You mind explaining—“ Herc spotted Tantō sleeping in the corner and jabbed a finger at him, “ _that?_ ”

“Um, well, ok, first of all, you should know that it was completely unintentional,” Newt stuttered. “I mean, I _wanted_ to but—I mean I didn’t have any _plans_ —“

Herc pinched the bridge of his nose. “Just answer me this: do you have any _plans_ on keeping that thing alive?”

Newt opened his mouth but shut it again. After a second, he finally said, “Well, I mean it _would_ be a good opportunity for research, especially since—“

“Can you keep it from killing anyone?”

“Um, this room is specially fitted to make sure Jaeger don’t kill everyone when they malfunction, right? And since we don’t have Jaeger anymore…”

“Right,” Herc said with a sigh. “Then I want reports on my desk—hourly, if necessary. Nothing—and I repeat _nothing_ —will go wrong with this kaiju. If it so much as looks at a civilian funny, it will be on a slab in your lab. Got it?”

Newt was shocked. He’d expected to argue about keeping Tantō alive, but Herc acted as if his only question was if Newt could keep Tantō under control. _Herc knows me too well_. “Got it, sir.”

“Good.” Herc turned to leave but turned back around to add, “You’re crazy as hell, Doctor Geiszler, but you’re a fine asset. Don’t let this thing kill you.”

Newt couldn’t respond with how fast Herc turned around, but he almost felt touched. He thought Herc didn’t care.

“You’ll get a new assistant tomorrow,” Herc added over his shoulder.

“New assistant?” Newt called back, but Herc had shut the door. Newt had plenty of assistants since research had picked up. He was almost overwhelmed by the number of assistants. Who else could possibly help?

Newt shrugged and turned back to Tantō. The little guy—Newt didn’t know if he would ever stop saying that—had fallen asleep within minutes of walking into the test center. _I guess coming back to life really takes it out of a kaiju_ , Newt thought.

He decided to let Tantō sleep. If the kaiju woke up, he wouldn’t be getting past the reinforced walls, so Newt figured it was safe. Besides, he had a million things to do. Taking care of a huge alien monster from another dimension required a lot of work.

 

* * *

 

Newt was working alone in his lab the next morning. The Jaeger techs had put cameras in the Jaeger testing room so Newt could keep an eye on Tantō while still working. He silently thanked Herc for that; he’d been worried about how he could keep working—or even sleep—without having to be near Tantō to make sure the kaiju didn’t break out of his makeshift cage. The techies had also spent all night clearing their equipment out of the room while Tantō was sleeping, so it was just a barren, reinforced room. Newt had to be there with them to make sure Tantō didn’t spontaneously wake up and attack.

Just like any wild animal, Tantō hated the room. His first action upon waking up (after the techs were done, luckily) was to slam himself against the walls, so cleaning it out had been a very good idea. Luckily, the walls held, and Tantō soon realized he would get nowhere, so he resigned himself to pacing until finally, Newt had to go down and calm him again. It was then that Newt discovered a platform jutting out of the walls at a height that just surpassed Tantō’s. Newt discovered the hallway that led to it, and decided it would be a perfect way to observe Tantō without the danger of getting stepped on and still be in the kaiju’s line of sight. While Newt was doing just that, the kaiju finally took another nap. Lucky for him. Newt had pulled an all-nighter, deciding to stay after the work with the techs was done.

Newt was also _alone_ all day because Vanessa had gone into labor that night, and Hermann had gone out to meet her at the hospital as soon as he could. Newt was proud of his colleague—okay, _friend_ —and he was actually excited to get to see their baby eventually.

What excited him _more_ , though, was being able to work while blaring music that Hermann would have a fit over—and dance to it. Oh yeah, if Hermann were here, he would be having conniptions at the way Newt was behaving. In fact, Newt was glad no one was here because on top of his terrible dancing, he was belting out songs, not necessarily caring about sounding good (he had work to focus on, after all). It would be enough to annoy anyone.

Newt was preoccupied singing a particularly high-pitched part of a song when he turned around, danced his way over to another lab set-up, turned again to get his papers, spotted Raleigh Becket in front of the elevator door, tripped and fell over. Papers flew everywhere as they followed him to the ground.  The music turned off. Raleigh probably did that so he could speak without fighting to be heard over a wailing singer.

“You alright?” Raleigh asked, suddenly standing over Newt, offering his hand.

Newt took his hand, feeling the blush coloring his cheeks but refusing to make it obvious. “I’m fine, I just—you surprised me. I thought you’d left this place as soon as…“

“Even after you save the world, it’s impossible to find a job,” Raleigh said around a hard candy in his mouth. “Besides, the only thing I’m really good at is piloting a Jaeger.”

“Then what are you doing here?” Newt winced as he realized how that might have been taken. He always seemed to say the wrong things around Raleigh. “I mean _here_ in the lab, not, you know, _here_ in Hong Kong.”

Raleigh spread his hands wide. “You’re looking at your new assistant.”

Newt almost fell over again. “Wait, _what_? Why? No offense, but my assistants tend to be…scientists.”

Raleigh raised an eyebrow. “I’m not here to do science—I’m here to manhandle a kaiju. Or as much as I can, since only Jaeger can manhandle a kaiju. That’s basically what Herc told me.”

Newt crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes. “Jaeger do a bit more than manhandle kaiju. I’ll have you know that I’m not about to let you hurt this kaiju. He is a scientific specimen and one of a kind. If you ‘manhandle’ him in a way that so much as puts a scratch in his cuticle—“

“Calm down,” Raleigh laughed again. “I was joking. I know how to do my job.”

“Even if it’s taking care of something you’ve been trained to kill?” Newt didn’t care that Raleigh probably hated him—he was not about to let this project go to waste because some Ranger wanted kaiju genocide.

Raleigh took a minute but eventually nodded. “Orders are orders.”

Newt didn’t like it but it was enough, he supposed. He turned around and beckoned Raleigh to follow him towards the elevator.  “Then let me show you your new charge.”


	3. Part II

Raleigh wasn’t really sure why _he_ was tasked with taking care of a kaiju, really. All he knew was that with no Jaeger and no kaiju left to _really_ fight, he was out of a job. Raleigh refused to go back into the construction business, but with the widespread destruction from kaiju attacks, that was really the biggest job opportunity that would suit him. So one day he asked if Herc could find a place for him.

One other factor of staying in the Shatterdome was Mako. They realized quickly that they weren’t cut out to date each other. Their Drift connection was more like a sibling deal for them than anything. Regardless, you don’t just leave your Drift partner. Mako was in the same situation as Raleigh but she’d already had a place outside of battling kaiju. Sure, there weren’t any Jaeger to modify or Rangers to train, but there was plenty of overseeing to do, what with research continuing. Motivated by a desire to not let Pentecost’s memory be lost, Mako was working constantly…which left Raleigh in the dust.

Raleigh could see Mako pulling away. Reporters continually showed up and Raleigh, used to the attention, met them with charm and grace. Mako tried to avoid them at all costs. Even the attention she got from her coworkers was strange to her. She’d been used to being the girl everyone underestimated, and it was a lot easier fighting them on that than getting congratulated on every little thing she did. So she would hide away, and she focused on her work instead, barely making time for Raleigh. Raleigh was quickly realizing that he was becoming her lowest priority and she was quickly becoming his _only_ priority. So he asked for the job. And was tasked with helping a probably maniacal scientist raise a definitely murderous kaiju. Great.

The maniacal scientist in question was currently rambling on about what tests he’d run on the nutritional intake required for this particular kaiju based on the chemical analysis he’d run…or something. Raleigh probably should be paying attention, but he was having a hard time keeping up, and Doctor Geiszler was not about to slow down for questions.

So Raleigh just watched him instead. Not in a creepy way (though admittedly, he was decently attractive), but mostly to figure out more about this guy that he’d only ever seen once. Newt was furiously blushing, but Raleigh really couldn’t understand why. Maybe he was overheated not from the elevator (which was actually quite cool) but from overexertion. He talked with his hands and clearly never ever stopped moving. It was like he had an IV of caffeine or something. The level of excitement or interest in a subject also seemed directly related to the pitch of his voice—the more interested he was, the higher his voice got. Raleigh briefly wondered if something could make him so excitable that his voice would be so high no one could hear him, like a dog whistle.  _Or a kaiju whistle_ , Raleigh thought with a grin.

“Are you actually interested in the level of ammonia in an organelle of a kaiju cell or are you making fun of me?” Doctor Geiszler suddenly asked.

“I was really wondering if you were actually talking to me or if your brain just overloaded into word vomit,” Raleigh said with a smirk.

Newt opened his mouth but must have realized that would only prove Raleigh’s point and shut it again with a frown. He gave Raleigh a look that the Ranger didn’t know how to interpret. The elevator stopped then so he didn’t think of it beyond that. Doctor Geiszler was probably just pissed at him.

They walked down the hall in silence until they made it to one of the platforms, below which was a baby kaiju, and Raleigh forgot all thoughts about Doctor Geiszler’s odd expression. This kaiju was more different from Otachi than he’d expected. Its limbs were short and almost pudgy. He didn’t have nearly as many sharp angles as his mother—his back ridge (there was only one on this guy) was actually more curved than sharp, and his horns were just little stubs. He was still pretty terrifying, but compared to other kaiju he was…kind of cute. It was weird seeing one up close and in person—not in a screen and…not through a hole it had ripped into a particular Jaeger. Raleigh brushed the thought away. Yancy’s death didn’t hurt as much, and it was easy to shove away after having done it so many times. After all, he’d told Mako that he was thinking of the future, leaving the past in the past. Which meant he needed to focus.

“…started as a Stegosaurus,” Doctor Geiszler was saying, “which you can tell—I mean you could tell on its mother with the spiked tail and the second brain, which we _were_ going to use to Drift with but _someone_ damaged that. Um, I mean with good reason, but anyway—“

“So what am I doing here?” Raleigh asked. It was turning into a long day.

Doctor Geiszler adjusted his glasses. “Well, actually, I really don’t know. I mean, getting food from my lab to here won’t be easy, so you could help with that but…”

“But I’m just a dumb Ranger, so I can’t help you geeks with your smart stuff,” Raleigh finished.

“No…” Doctor Geiszler trailed off, which was easily translated into _yes, but I was trying to be nice_.

“It’s fine. Not like I’ve got any other option,” Raleigh said. Doctor Geiszler winced like he felt bad for Raleigh, which Raleigh didn’t really like. So he changed the subject. “So what’s the plan now, Doctor Geiszler?”

“Newt,” Doctor Geiszler corrected.

“Fine, _Newt_ ,” Raleigh asked. “What are we doing next?”

Doctor Geiszler—it was going to take a while before Newt stuck—frowned. “Well, I was going to run some more tests, but…” here Doctor Geiszler looked down at the kaiju. “I think I know what we can do instead. It’s going to involve geeky stuff, if you can handle that.”

“I’ll try my best,” Raleigh said with an eye-roll.

 

* * *

 

“Hey, watch it! No fast movements!” Newt shouted when Raleigh accidentally hit the side of the elevator door with the wheeled tub and a few drops of ammonia dripped to the floor. They were both wearing masks because of this ammonia and its toxic fumes, so all Newt could see in response was the glare Raleigh tossed at him, but it clearly said _you think I’m stupid?_ Actually, Newt got that look a lot because, to be quite honest, he _did_ tend to underestimate the Ranger’s intelligence. Newt kept forgetting that this was the same guy who figured out how to use Gipsy Danger as the back-up bomb for the Drift and who happened to be a hundred percent Drift-compatible with one of the most intelligent people in the Shatterdome. It was hard to see that past the drawling accent and the admittedly _very_ large muscles—the same muscles that were working _very_ hard to pull the tub into the elevator.

Newt tore his eyes away from Raleigh’s distracting muscles when the tub was finally in the elevator, causing ammonia to spill over more with the abrupt stop. Occupying most of the hundred-pound tub was various fish. Newt knew that ammonia kept the skin parasites and all the other kaiju parts alive, so he knew they had to be essential to kaiju. Since fish are some of the biggest producers of ammonia, they had to be a good choice for a kaiju diet—especially since they were caught in the polluted Hong Kong waters—which were a good source of silicon, another essential element to kaiju. Soaking the fish in even more ammonia just added the extra kick, since kaiju probably needed a bit more of the compound than the Earth was currently producing. All that was left was to get Tantō to eat it.

That proved more difficult than it should have been. Newt picked out a particularly large fish (thankful for the gloves he was wearing—even ammonia couldn’t cover up the smell of dead fish) and waved it enticingly over the edge of the platform. Tantō, however, ignored both it and Newt’s urgent attempts to send brain messages to Tantō about feeding him. Tantō was too busy wriggling in that way that Newt was quickly learning meant he was happy to see him, which would usually be endearing but was annoying today.

“Look, Tantō! You haven’t eaten for days! It’s a delicious fishy,” Newt shook the fish more roughly but Tantō had already turned around. Newt sighed and looked over to Raleigh. With the mask, he couldn’t see Raleigh’s amused smile but he could see the crinkles around his eyes. “I guess we’ll have to go down there. I swear I’ll shove it in his mouth if I have to.”

Raleigh chuckled as he helped Newt push the tub back down the hall and back to the elevator. “I think he might eat _you_ if you do that.”

Down on the main floor of the test facility, Tantō was more excited than ever, unable to run in a straight line as he made his way toward Newt, stopping just before he ran the scientist over. He dropped his nose so Newt could pet it the way he’d done the first time. Newt did so, pulling a fish out of the ammonia as well and putting it right up to Tantō’s nostril. Tantō immediately pulled back, and for a second, Newt thought he was going to turn away again, but instead, he opened his mouth—splitting his bottom jaw in half just like Otachi—and let out a blue, tongue-like tentacle, the glow faint in the light but still very prominent. Beside Newt, Raleigh gasped, but Newt stayed still, only moving to hold the fish up higher.

“What the hell is that thing?” Raleigh asked.

“It’s some sort of sense organ, like a tongue or a palp or…something,” Newt said, putting on his lecture voice, as he stepped to the side to avoid the acidic kaiju saliva that had started to fall on him. “His mother used it when she found me in the kaiju shelter. I was wondering when he was going to use it.”

Newt missed the way Raleigh’s eyes widened in surprise because Tantō had run the palpus ( _Yeah, let’s just stick with palpus_ ) down the length of the fish and seemed to have gotten all he needed because the palpus started to retract. Just as it disappeared, Newt tossed the fish into the air. Tantō caught it with ease and Newt sensed the immediate pleasure at the taste.

“Well, he likes it,” Newt confirmed.

“And you know that how?” Raleigh asked.

“Well, I mean, he doesn’t look angry, does he?” Newt was hesitant to tell Raleigh about the connection he had with Tantō. He wasn’t sure how Raleigh would take it. Still, Raleigh seemed to accept that explanation.

Newt immediately grabbed another fish and tossed that as well. Raleigh made the mistake of attempting to throw one as well, and Tantō screeched and backed away, letting the fish fall to the ground. Raleigh scrambled backwards as well, letting Newt step forward to calm the kaiju.

“Tantō!” Newt shouted over the distressed growling Tantō was making. He immediately went quiet at the sound of Newt’s voice except for one squeak—which was probably meant to be imperceptible in any normal sized creature whose vocal chords weren’t the size of marble columns. Newt pulled his mask down so Tantō could see his face fully and he tried to keep his brain calm, attempting to project those waves of calm to the kaiju. “I know he scared you, but it’s totally ok buddy. He won’t hurt you.”

Newt grabbed another fish and motioned Raleigh towards him. The Ranger stepped forward uncertainly and took the fish from Newt, who told him, “Just hold it out for him the way I did. He might try to feel you too, but I won’t let him eat you.”

Newt grinned as Raleigh looked over at him, as if asking how a short scientist was going to stop a kaiju, but he stepped forward anyway. Tantō reeled back, but didn’t take a step, which Newt took as a good sign. Raleigh slowly lifted the fish, and Tantō simply stared. Newt was just getting a whole lot of confusion from the kaiju. Newt was about to step forward and feed Tantō himself, when the kaiju finally opened his mouth. Inexplicably, Newt was getting more from Tantō’s mind, as his senses overlapped with Newt’s. Raleigh closed his eyes as the palpus ran down the length of the fish and then curled slowly around Raleigh’s back up into his hair and down his legs. Newt sensed all of it with Tantō, along with the new sense of reassurance that replaced his initial fear. With one last pass over the fish, the palpus finally pulled back, and Raleigh tossed the fish. Tantō caught it easily.

 

 

  

Newt whooped, allowing that tiny celebration before they both took turns giving Tantō the rest of the fish. In no time the only thing in the tub was ammonia that they poured down the drains with a lot of water to follow. Newt wasn’t sure if the fish was enough to sustain a growing kaiju appetite, but it would at least keep him alive until they could find more food alternatives. They’d made a lot of progress today, especially since Newt had a viable method of introducing his lab assistants to Tantō, and they could eventually take samples for him. Newt was ecstatic.

Back in the elevator, Raleigh took off his mask and gloves before asking, “So you were close enough to see Otachi’s…tongue thing?”

“I think it’s more of a palpus,” Newt corrected, but at a look from Raleigh, he consented. “Alright, yeah, so maybe Otachi was looking for me in Kowloon.”

“Looking for you?”

“Um yeah,” Newt said, not really sure how he was going to explain everything to Raleigh. “You know how I Drifted with the kaiju brain, and it, like, told me all their secrets?”

“Yeah…”

“Well...turns out it was getting information back—not just the kaiju brain but their masters, the Precursors,” Newt clamped down on the flashbacks threatening to take over. “The ones that grow these kaiju also have a connection to them—in their cells—so when I Drifted with the kaiju, the Precursors found me. They have this sort of mind-control thing, so if I was connected to kaiju, I was connected to them. They tried to talk to me through Otachi in Kowloon.”

“Wait, so, are you still connected then?” Raleigh asked.

Newt picked at a bit of his sleeve, revealing a bit of color, before admitting, “Well, to Tantō, yeah. I get his emotions and what he’s sensing, but I don’t see the Precursors anymore. I think that’s because when he died they cut the connection to him, and that means that he’s not connected to their minds anymore and that’s probably whyhelikesmesomuchand—“

“Whoa, slow down,” Raleigh said. “Are you ok?”

“Yeah, uh, just—why aren’t you freaking out about this?” Newt asked

“Why, because you’re mind-melding with a kaiju? Hell, all that means is that you can control him better, and that makes me feel a lot better.”

Newt let out a breath, instantly relaxing.

“I’m still wondering when you got a chance to talk to Otachi,” Raleigh asked.

“It was probably when you guys were fighting Leatherback,” Newt shrugged. With a grin, he added, “Luckily, you came right before I let the Precursors in my head. I liked that trick with the coolant tanks, by the way.”

Raleigh grinned back. “That was my idea. Mako thought it was impressive.”

“It was,” Newt agreed. “But as long as it saved me from death by kaiju palpus, I’m pretty sure anything would have been impressive.”

Raleigh laughed. _So I finally said something right for once_ , Newt thought, pleased with himself. If he was going to be working with this Ranger for a while, he wanted to be on good terms.

 

* * *

 

Hermann was working from home for the next few weeks, but they did maintain constant communication through teleconferences. Through them, Newt saw Hermann’s new baby girl, Arabella. She was beautiful—clearly meaning that she took no traits from her father. Newt could tell his friend was happy with her. He’d never seen grumpy Hermann smile as wide as he did when he held her.

They also discussed work, of course. Newt asked Hermann about the mind connection, but Hermann had said he’d barely felt anything. It was like he was getting less than Newt. Probably because he’d only Drifted once. They both attributed the lack of connection between the two of them to the fact that kaiju minds were much better equipped to that kind of connection.

At the end of one session, however, Hermann had added, _Don’t let that kaiju kill you before I get back_. Newt rolled his eyes and shut his laptop. Hermann would probably never understand why Newt wanted to raise Tantō. To be honest, Newt wasn’t really sure why he was raising the kaiju either. He was getting by with the excuse of research, but he had to admit that in the last week, he was already seeing Tantō’s personality show through his fear. Hell, he’d felt safe enough to let it close enough that it could have eaten him! And that was just two days in! There was just something about Tantō that seemed so vulnerable and open and trusting.

_Their world was dying, but this new planet brought hope. The trip to the Breach was like a breath of fresh air. A different kind of air, but air all the same. All they had to do was take over this small planet._

Newt shook his head. The Drift flashbacks had quelled for the most part, but anything could trigger them. At least this one seemed more like a normal memory. It was definitely a mixture of the Precursor’s mind and Otachi’s mind, but it had come from the Drift with Tantō. The Precursors might have wanted to take over a new planet, but they certainly didn’t allow for things such as hope. If that were the case, they would have cared enough to not destroy each planet they found so quickly. The kaiju might be weapons but more like a horse was a vehicle. Sure, they didn’t really feel hope the way that humans did—they felt it more like a dog that hopes its owner comes back. They were loyal, but they knew there was better. Otachi knew there was better, and she had been prepared to raise her offspring on Earth, to give it a better place than what she knew. So Newt, by raising that offspring, was just carrying out her hope right? Well, there was also the possibility that he was giving the Precursors an opening to destroy the entire human population. It was all very conflicting.

Newt looked up as Raleigh walked into the lab. The Ranger had barely finished his greeting before his eyes widened.

“Dude, are you ok?” He asked, rushing over to Newt’s side.

Newt tilted his head in confusion. “I’m fine.”

“Your nose is bleeding,” Raleigh grabbed a tissue from Hermann’s desk and handed it over. Newt dabbed his nose and found that he was, indeed, bleeding, as a spot of red on the white tissue indicated. He looked up to see Raleigh still staring. “Is this normal for you?”

“My nose randomly bleeding? No,” Newt laughed as he went to stand up. “Probably the after-effects of—“

Newt didn’t really know what had happened until he realized he was staring up at Raleigh from the floor. He hadn’t exactly fainted—just fell over—but he wished he would have been unconscious so he wouldn’t see the way Raleigh was looking at him. It was like a mixture of concern but also frustration as the possibilities ran through his head.

“After-effects of what, exactly?” Raleigh demanded.

“Drifting solo with a kaiju?” Newt breathed, recovering from his fall.

“Have you gotten checked out for it yet?” Raleigh asked slowly, like Newt was a child.

“Well I’ve been meaning to—“

“We’re getting you checked out.” Raleigh reached down, and grabbed Newt’s hand. With the scientist standing up again, he then put the arm around his shoulders. Newt wanted to protest but he was too weak, so he let Raleigh drag him toward the medical wing.

An hour or so later, Newt was on a pill regimen similar to Pentecost’s and told to take it easy for the day. Newt was willing to take the pills but he wasn’t about to take it easy. He had a kaiju to take care of. Raleigh seemed to understand that. He made no protests when Newt dove right back into work.

During the week since he and Raleigh had fed Tantō the first time, there was a lot Newt was learning. Feeding had been a trial and error deal, which luckily Raleigh put up with good-naturedly. Despite giving direction on what to give, it wasn’t Newt but Raleigh was doing the majority of the feeding. He’d volunteered actually, since besides that, he was mostly just there to be an extra pair of hands. It was pretty boring, and Newt sympathized with him, but honestly there wasn’t much else he could give Raleigh to do. The work was just too advanced, especially for a person not trained in the sciences. Tantō would eat fish, but not live cows. He would eat pigs though, despite the supposed lack of nutrients compared to the fish.

And as for water, well that had been an experience. Newt mixed ammonia into ocean water nearest to the most polluted areas, but in an attempt to increase the amount of silicon in Tantō’s diet, Newt had gone so far as to add beer—which was actually a great source of silicon. Raleigh laughed at it, but followed Newt’s strict instructions to not drink any of it, since it was infused with ammonia. Tantō had liked the taste of it, but it had made their connection weaker, which freaked him out, and Newt had to sleep on the platform that night because any time he left, Tantō would start pacing frantically.

There was a lot of leftover beer that no one knew what to do with, so Raleigh and Newt shared it, often setting aside time to drink and talk. It was always an interesting experience to have a German and an American bond over beer and figure out their cultural differences. It was especially interesting that the American was a bit of a World War II fanboy and he would constantly bring it up, disregarding the fact that he was describing in detail the way Americans helped take down the German forces to a German. Not that Newt cared, honestly, about any wars except the Kaiju one, but it was the concept that counted.

Newt was also surprised to find just how similar he and Raleigh were, like they were the same person from different countries. Raleigh would have made a pretty great colleague if he’d gone the scientist route, and Newt supposed that if he were just a tad more attuned to social cues, he wouldn’t have made a bad Ranger. And their taste in music wasn’t very different—just in different languages.

“You were in a _band_?” Raleigh laughed one day.

“Yeah, the Black Velvet Rabbits—look it’s really not _that_ funny,” Newt said, crossing his arms. Raleigh was almost wheezing.

“I’m sorry, did you say _Rabbits_? And you were a _rock_ band?” Raleigh managed. He was trying to take deep breaths to calm himself.

“Hey, the name wasn’t my idea!” Newt said defensively. “I was just the keyboard player and the engineer—it was our lead singer who came up with it. Anyway, we were pretty good.”

“I’m sure,” Raleigh said, still smiling. “You have a recording?”

“I should…” Newt walked over to his CD’s and dug through them until he finally got the one he wanted and put it in the stereo. A thumping bass permeated the air.

Raleigh listened for a while without expression but at the end of the song, he grinned. “I’ll admit, that _was_ pretty good.”

“It better be,” Newt said. “My parents would kill me if I was a bad musician.”

“They musicians too?” Raleigh asked.

Newt nodded. “My Uncle Gunter taught me about the synth stuff though. He was a genius.”

“And you aren’t?” Raleigh baited Newt.

Newt raised an eyebrow. He was more than willing to take the bait. “Well, I mean, I have to give some credit to _someone_.”

“ _Right_ ,” Raleigh laughed. “So what about your parents? They still touring.”

Newt frowned for a minute, but he refused to let it ruin the mood. It was years ago. “They both died a while ago. I don’t really play many of their recordings.”

“Oh, that’s fine. I get it,” Raleigh said somberly. Newt hated it.

“Besides, my dad always wanted to be lead singer but he was a bass player. He couldn’t hit a pitch on stage if he tried.”

Raleigh smiled and they jumped back into easier conversation. That was typically how it went. Newt was determined to find the best out of life, jump past everyone who doubted everything he did just because of who he was, so he’d keep conversation light. Raleigh had a tougher time of it, with all his wounds so recent, so Newt typically led the conversations. It was a new experience for him, taking control of a conversation like that, but he supposed after all he’d put Raleigh through by having him be the primary caretaker of a kaiju he hated, it was only fair that he at least _pretend_ he knew what Raleigh was thinking.

_Oh God, whose brilliant idea was it to pair the both of us up?_

* * *

 

With the passage of the week, Newt was starting to notice that something was wrong with Tantō. The signs had been there since Tantō had been revived but they were hard to detect until he had gotten used to Tantō’s personality. Tantō had been coughing constantly since he’d arrived but Newt had written that off as the development of his bile sac, since a bit of acidic saliva would come up as well. Even the sleeping was a bit odd. Kaiju were made so that they could destroy major population zones of the entire planet, but Tantō couldn’t really go for long without sleeping.

The biggest warning sign that alerted Newt to the problem occurred about a day after his almost-fainting spell. While Tantō was sleeping, Newt realized his breathing wasn’t smooth. It would catch sometimes, and he would stop before a little cough restarted it. Hannibal Chau’s words played in Newt’s mind: _Lungs weren’t fully formed. Couldn’t live outside the womb for more than a few minutes_. Newt thought he had just made that up on the spot, but he was starting to think there might actually be some truth to it.

An x-ray (Newt would have preferred MRI but that was a bit of an impossibility) done while Tantō was sleeping quickly cleared up Newt’s questions. Hannibal _had_ been partially right. Tantō’s lungs were developed enough for him to be alive—actually, the right lung was completely fine—however, the left lung was stunted. It was about half the size of the right, and it was very clearly deformed. Tantō was only getting half of the…not-oxygen that he needed, so he would sleep to allow for more controlled, deep breathing. The coughing was probably due to air going into the left lung and not being able to be processed correctly. If Tantō didn’t get this problem fixed soon, he would die. But how to you fix a kaiju lung?

Newt threw his pen at the x-rays on the wall and let out a frustrated growl just as Raleigh walked into the room behind him.

“Throwing stuff at things you don’t like just breaks something and makes you more angry,” the Ranger noted. “Besides, I thought you liked kaiju x-rays.”

“Not when they tell me there’s something wrong with a kaiju I’m keeping alive,” Newt said, turning around to see Raleigh holding out two coffee mugs. “Is one of those for me?”

Raleigh nodded and handed one over. “Something’s wrong with it?”

“His name’s Tantō,” Newt corrected automatically, but he took the coffee gratefully. He closed his eyes as he took the first sip. It was black but Newt was fine with just the taste of pure coffee after his frustrating night. He had to force himself to focus so he could answer Raleigh’s question. “Apparently, kaiju lungs are the last to develop in a womb, and _our_ premature kaiju has a dysfunctional left lung.”

“So that’s what’s with all the coughing?” Raleigh asked, stepping past Newt to look at the x-rays himself.

“And with all the sleeping,” Newt said with a nod, pleasantly surprised that Raleigh had noticed. He took some sugar packets Raleigh had left on the lab table and started pouring them into his coffee. “It’s even worse in this atmosphere, too, since he needs more carbon dioxide and nitrogen than oxygen.”

“Could you pump some of that into the Nest?” Raleigh asked. They’d started calling Tantō’s room the Nest because it was less of a mouthful and sounded halfway official. After all, Tantō was becoming a serious project. They had to start at least _acting_ like it was formal.

“Maybe for, like, a minute, but then no one could go in unless they had an oxygen tank,” Newt answered, shaking his head.

“Couldn’t you do the reverse? Give it a tank?” Raleigh asked. “Or a mask to filter out all the oxygen?”

Newt froze as the possibilities ran through his head. It was completely possible. A filtered mask...and connect that to a tank of carbon dioxide or nitrogen, maybe both. It would be easy!

“Raleigh, that’s brilliant!” Newt shouted. He didn’t know what to do with himself—it was the biggest breakthrough they had made that could be the most successful…and it was Raleigh’s idea. Newt was so happy he could kiss him.

So he did.

Newt grabbed Raleigh’s shirt and stood on his toes to crash his mouth against Raleigh’s. It probably lasted for less than a second, but when Newt jumped back, realizing what he’d done, Raleigh’s eyes were wide, and he looked like he’d been shot.

“Dude, I’m so sor—“

“I have to go,” Raleigh said, turning right around and getting out of the lab as fast as he could, though he bumped a table on his way, causing a kaiju organ to crash to the ground.

When Raleigh’s footsteps died away, Newt kicked the organ that had fallen and pulled at his hair. _Why am I so_ stupid _?_

Newt had never done anything like that before—God-forbid Hermann be at the receiving end of a stunt like that—and he really didn’t know why he’d decided that Raleigh was the person to try it on. Sure, Raleigh was ridiculously attractive and better to talk to than Hermann, but he definitely didn’t feel the same. Newt cursed his ability to screw everything up with people he mildly liked. That was probably why he’d stuck around Hermann for so long. They didn’t like each other, so if Newt royally screwed up, it wouldn’t be a big deal. But here he was, screwing things up with a person he was just starting to get along with.

Newt took another pencil and threw it. This time it hit the doorframe—just as Hermann walked through it.

He watched the pencil hit the wall and fall down before looking over at Newt. “Well, I suppose I shouldn’t have expected a better welcome than that.”

“Hermann!” Newt cried in surprise. “You’re back.”

“Unfortunately,” Hermann said, walking over to his side of the lab and dropping his bag. On his way he passed by the TVs broadcasting Tantō’s sleeping form. “That horrid kaiju is still alive?”

Newt wanted to say something sarcastic back, but the day was getting to him He sighed instead. “Barely.”

Hermann looked over for a second before pretending to be busy again. “Is that why you’re throwing pencils?”

“No—I mean originally, yes,” Newt said, attempting to backtrack because...

“Originally?” Hermann wouldn’t take anything less than a full explanation. It was too late to back out now.

Newt sighed again. “I _might_ have kissed Raleigh Becket.” Hermann froze. “I mean, not _intentionally_. I just kind of got excited and—but he freaked out! And I didn’t even get a chance to explain.”

“I was wondering why he looked so strange when he got off the elevator. I thought you’d nearly killed him with one of your experiments,” Hermann said. He wasn’t giving this the attention Newt thought it deserved.

“Hermann, I _kissed_ him,” Newt stressed.

“Yes, but if he’s been working with you for a week, he probably knows how much of an idiot you are by now,” Hermann said. He shrugged off his coat with absolutely no emotion on his face.

“You’re ridiculous,” Newt said, turning his back to his partner. Honestly though, Hermann’s nonchalance was making him feel better. Right, it was an accident, and there really was no reason to freak out.

“Arabella is a healthy baby, since you didn’t ask,” Hermann said, though he was turned to his work as well.

“She clearly takes after Vanessa,” Newt shot back easily.

“I’ll not be having you turn her into another kaiju groupie.”

“Aw, you thought I wanted to teach her about kaiju? That’s sweet of you Hermann.”

“Oh, shut up.”

 

* * *

 

Raleigh didn’t know what to do with himself after he’d left Newt’s lab. On the elevator, as he sucked on an orange-flavored candy, his mind raced. He replayed the kiss in his mind—his confusion as Newt leaned forward, his utter shock when their lips met, the taste of coffee on Newt’s lips that had lingered until Raleigh ate the candy, and the way Raleigh’s first thought was to run away as fast as possible. Odd for a guy famous for fight over flight.  Most of what was running across his mind, though was just a mantra of _Newt kissed me. Why did he kiss me? Why do I_ care _?_

Because he really _shouldn’t_ care. Newt was a little eccentric and a lot excitable. It was probably an accident, not meant to be a statement of his feelings for Raleigh. Even if it was that though, Raleigh didn’t feel the same. Of course he didn’t. Sure the guy was pretty attractive and, admittedly, kind of adorable, but honestly, he wasn’t Raleigh’s type.

Raleigh passed Hermann in the hallway and was almost relieved that Newt’s lab partner was going to be back. Maybe he’d keep the guy in check. Raleigh hoped it wasn’t obvious to Hermann that he was freaking out.

Before he knew it, he found himself in Mako’s room. He didn’t know he was heading there, but he was glad he did. If there was anyone he could talk to about something like this, it would be his Drift partner.

“Is everything alright?” Mako asked immediately.

“You know Doctor Geiszler is really weird right?”

Mako laughed and nodded. “Did he do something weird today?”

“Well, he was freaking out about something wrong with the kaiju when I walked in today,” Raleigh began. He noticed the shadow that crossed over Mako’s face. She still held a grudge against any and all kaiju, and only professionalism (or maybe a lack of a Jaeger) kept her from going to the Nest to kill the thing herself. She also understood how many scientific breakthroughs could be made by it, so she held it in.

“I was just trying to calm him down,” Raleigh continued, “so I gave him some suggestions. They must have worked because he got really happy and…you know that saying ‘I’m so happy I could kiss you’? Well, he kind of actually did it.”

Mako tilted her head in confusion. “He kissed you?”

“Yeah, but it was totally an accident,” Raleigh said, laughing as he realized how ridiculous the whole situation was. “And you should have seen his face when he realized what he’d done.”

Mako’s sly smile returned. “Is he a good kisser?”

Raleigh laughed even harder. “God no, it was terrible!”

“Then I don’t see why you were panicking,” Mako said.

“I don’t know either,” Raleigh said shaking his head. It was completely ridiculous. Newt clearly kissed him on accident, so there was absolutely no reason to freak out. Raleigh was feeling better already.

 

* * *

 

Newt was busy that night planning Tantō’s mask. It really was a simple concept. All it took was a huge bubble over Tantō’s nose with an oxygen filter—found in some cars—leaving Tantō with the right gasses he needed. Connected to the mask with hoses would be a tank filled with carbon dioxide that Newt could adjust as needed. The tank would fit right behind Tantō’s frill and the hoses were wrapped around the nubs that were slowly growing to form Tantō’s horns to keep the tank and mask on firmly. Tantō wouldn’t notice anything, since the tank would just be like one of the parasites and the mask bubble would be weightless to the huge kaiju.

Newt spent all night building the mask, the tinkering just as therapeutic as his bantering with Hermann. His only reminder came when he drank the coffee Raleigh had gotten him, forgetting where it had come from and blanching at how cold it was. He poured it down the drain in the floor, tossed the mug on an empty desk, and dove right back into work.

Tantō was asleep _again_ when Newt made it to the testing room, which made Newt’s heart hurt with a bit of worry. He calmed himself with the hope that this mask would make that all better, and immediately began putting everything in the right places. When his work was done, he went up to one of the platforms and sat against the wall. Newt intended to stay there so that when Tantō woke up, he could see whether the kaiju accepted it and to see if he needed to adjust it. But it was late and Newt had been working all day. Before he knew it, his head tilted down, and he was fast asleep. 

 

* * *

 

That night, Mako’s words ran across Raleigh’s mind. _I don’t see why you were panicking_. It was stupid, really, because the obvious reason that he was just taken by surprise. And the only reason it should be freaking him out is if Newt had been sincere—and if Raleigh returned the feelings. Which he didn’t, but it was getting harder and harder to deny.

Raleigh sat up in bed, knowing that he wasn’t about to sleep with these thoughts. He decided to go for a walk around the Shatterdome. _I don’t return the feelings,_ Raleigh told himself over and over again. His mind, however, was replaying everything they’d ever done. The way Newt would adjust his glasses when he was nervous or distracted, the way he looked at Tantō, like the kaiju was his own son, even the way his eyes would glaze over when Raleigh tried to explain all the intricate details of World War II— _No!_ Raleigh shook his head of the thoughts. Yeah, it was adorable, but it wasn’t like Raleigh wanted to kiss him for it.

Raleigh knew he was heading towards The Nest. He didn’t know why he was walking that way since the kaiju was probably sleeping anyway. Maybe it was just out of habit. He tended to go to the Nest when he couldn’t sleep. Tantō made him feel better somehow.

Tantō bounded over to Raleigh when the Ranger stepped into the room, leaning down to get a pet on his nose. Raleigh relented and he realized that there was a mask covering Tantō’s nostrils that he had to pet around. It was the mask that he’d suggested Newt use. Looking up, Raleigh spotted the last person he wanted to see on the platform. _It’s ok, we can just pretend this never happened and go back to normal_ , Raleigh told himself. He forced himself to go up. Newt might have been sleeping peacefully now but he wouldn’t appreciate the pain of sleeping on the platform by morning.

On the platform, Raleigh had to stop for a second to smile at Newt. The feisty scientist was like a completely different person asleep. His mouth was open and his glasses had slipped down his nose. He wasn’t snoring, but he made soft cooing noises with every breath. The word that came to Raleigh’s mind was _cute_. The scientist was suddenly like a little kid. Raleigh almost felt bad as he shook Newt’s shoulder, causing him to shoot straight up.

“Mmm? What—what’s going on? What happened? Where am I?” Newt said, his voice still thick with sleep.

“It’s ok, you’re in the Nest,” Raleigh said.

Newt took a second to register Raleigh’s presence. He looked over, confused at first before his eyes widened. “Oh, it’s you. So you don’t hate me forever?”

Raleigh shook his head. “No, I don’t hate you. I get that it was an accident now.”

“Right, good,” Newt said, taking off his glasses to rub his eyes. Raleigh realized Newt was blushing. “Sorry I’m such an idiot.”

“I really don’t mind. Let’s just pretend it never happened,” Raleigh said, holding out a hand to help Newt up. Newt took it, but at his deepened blush, Raleigh decided he needed to change the subject before he realized that he really _did_ mind. “Do you even have a bed or do you just kind of work until you pass out?”

“I was waiting to see if Tantō was ok with his new mask,” Newt said with a yawn.

“He didn’t seem to mind it,” Raleigh said turning his head to look at the kaiju.

Newt walked over to the edge of the platform and saw Tantō doing his usual body-wriggle as he spotted Newt. “Awesome! He should be better in no time.”

“You should get to bed. It’s three in the morning,” Raleigh said.

Newt turned around, raising an eyebrow, “Says the person here at three in the morning.”

Raleigh shrugged. “I couldn’t sleep, so I came to see Tantō.”

“He is pretty calming,” Newt said in agreement then laughed. “That’s something you never hear about kaiju.”

Raleigh shook his head, refusing to humor Newt, but he couldn’t stop the corners of his mouth from curling up. “Good night, Doctor Geiszler.”

“ _Newt_ ,” Newt couldn’t help but correct even though Raleigh had turned around.

The Ranger turned back around and winked. “Whatever you say, Doctor Geiszler.”

Raleigh didn’t hear a response, and since he was facing the other way, he didn’t see that this was because Newt was too busy blushing at the wink. That was probably for the best. 


	4. Part III

“I want to let Tantō go outside,” Newt told Hermann three weeks after the kissing incident.

“What?” Hermann was surprised not just at the insinuation of letting a kaiju run rampant but also at the fact that Newt was talking to him about it, almost asking permission.

“He’s a kaiju. I mean, sure they’re raised in cages, but they’re capable of swimming for a long time and I think it would make him feel better if he went for a swim.”

“But what’s to say he won’t go about destroying cities?” Hermann asked. “They’re just weapons made for destruction, didn’t you say?”

“Yeah, but Tantō’s different somehow,” Newt insisted.

“Oh, you’ve gotten attached to him haven’t you?” Hermann sighed in one of those rare moments of sympathy. “Newton, just because he’s warmed up to you doesn’t mean his first instinct isn’t to kill.”

“No, Hermann, it’s not like that!” Newt insisted. “He imprinted on me, sure, but the Precursors make these kaiju do their bidding from the Anteverse and that should have outweighed any attachments he had from his first imprint. But he was separated from them. I can’t feel them at all—just Tantō.”

“And do you have proof of this beyond your own connection?”

“Well…no,” Newt relented. “The coding that allows for DNA memory is still active—but I know he wouldn’t do anything. He let me put a mask on him without a fight! Besides, he follows me around like a puppy.”

“So you’re just going to get into the water with him?” Hermann asked.

“I’ll do what I have to,” Newt said simply before moving on like it wasn’t as big of a deal as it was. “I just need to figure out a way to get him out to the ocean.”

“Good luck getting permission,” Hermann said, and that was the end of their conversation.

 

* * *

 

“No.”

“Sir, it really isn’t as bad as it sounds!” Newt said. He and Hercules Hansen were standing on either side of his desk. “We can keep him attached to Jet Hawks at all times if we need to.”

“You make that sound as if they’re going to be able to hold a kaiju,” Herc said.

“They’re made to carry Jaeger!” Newt protested.

“Which are half the size of kaiju,” Herc countered.

“This one’s half the size of a full-grown kaiju.”

“Jaeger don’t struggle against their bonds.”

Newt was at a loss for a comeback to that. “It would be good for him to swim.”

“Does it affect your research?”

“Well it’s certainly killing off the parasites that live on him!” They were starting to litter the floor of the Nest. “They maintain his immune system and various other systems of life.”

“Does spraying him down do the same thing as swimming?” Herc asked.

“Probably,” Newt relented and crossed his arms, but this fight wasn’t over. “He was raised to fight, though! He’s withering away in that room.”

“Is this a result of your analysis, or do you just feel bad for it?” Herc said, passing a hand over his face.

 “His muscles aren’t nearly as defined as they should be.” It wasn’t a complete lie, as Tantō was still in development so his muscles were still growing. Newt decided it couldn’t hurt to stretch the truth. He was not about to give this up. And then an idea came to him. “What about flying?”

“What?” Herc seemed wary of Newt’s brightened expression.

“Tantō can fly—he has wings and he’ll need to learn,” Newt said. “It would be easier to keep track of him in the air. The Jet Hawks would stay with him easier and—and I could even ride on him!”

“You’re volunteering for that?” Herc asked incredulously.

“If that’s what it takes for you to understand how serious I am right now,” Newt insisted, though he was nervous thinking about it.

Herc stared Newt down for another minute. Newt tried not to blink, but his eyes got watery so he covered it up by adjusting his glasses. Herc relented then. “I’ll see what I can do.”

Newt’s grin was blinding.

 

* * *

 

“What’s this I hear about you flying on Tantō?” Raleigh asked in the lab the next day. He sounded concerned.

“Tantō needs the exercise, so I asked Herc if I could let him fly, and I thought I might be able to control him better if I was right there with him,” Newt explained quickly. “Why, did Herc approve it?”

“Dude, you’re _insane_ ,” Raleigh shouted. “What if you fall off? Or what if he flies off and you’re stuck? Otachi tried to fly Gipsy Danger into _space_.”

“Good to know someone’s rational around here,” Hermann called from the other side of the room.

“I’m sorry, were you invited to this conversation?” Newt asked dangerously.

“I was invited when you asked my opinion earlier,” Hermann growled.

“ _Look_ ,” Raleigh said, snapping Newt’s attention back on him. “How do you know Tantō’s wings even work?”

“Well, that’s the whole point isn’t it?” Newt said. “If they don’t work, we can try to fix them. If they _do_ work, it’s a vital part of his growth process to use them or they could fall off or something from disuse.”

“Ok, well, I still think it’s stupid that you want to ride on him,” Raleigh said. There was a grunt of agreement from Hermann on the other side of the room that Newt elected to ignore. “But let’s test his wings out first, ok?”

“Ok, fine, let’s go,” Newt said, a little grumpily. Sure one of his best traits was overcoming people’s doubts about him, but it was pretty tiring trying to prove to them he knew what he was doing.

In Tantō’s room, Newt wasted no time in checking the kaiju’s wings. He had to get a personnel lift to get as high as the bony tip of his folded wings, while Raleigh was on the ground preparing Tantō’s food for the day. Newt ran his hands over the length the bony edge of Tantō’s wing was, but the kaiju wasn’t opening it. Newt knew pulling wasn’t going to work, so he brought along tools ranging from an ice-pick to a sledgehammer. It was hard to tell what would get a kaiju’s attention when he loved his nose being scratched but couldn’t sense a tank on his back. Newt started with the ice pick, poking it first at the tip of the wing, then lower down where the wing was covered with scales. Neither worked, so Newt tapped the space between the outline of the wing and Tantō’s actual arm, where a softer membrane was. That was a mistake.

Actually, it did exactly what it was supposed to—the wing snapped right open. The mistake was that Newt—probably in his stubborn frustration—hadn’t planned ahead very well. The platform he was on was directly in front of Tantō’s wingspan, so when the wings popped open, it was in the way. Newt had a brief second between Tantō’s surprised cry and the wing moving for one thought: _Oh shit!_

The rest was a blur to Newt. The platform shot across the room and Newt followed. It was pure luck that Tantō had started flailing and happened to get his wing in just the right spot so that Newt hit it and slipped off _before_ hitting the ground. If he hadn’t had that break in his fall, he would have died. As it was, a leg bone had snapped, and he was pretty sure he more than one broken rib, a broken back, a concussion, and definitely some internal damage. That was evident when a painful cough brought up flecks of blood. If it didn’t hurt to breathe, Newt would have been screaming. It seemed someone was doing that for him though. _Raleigh_ , Newt thought, _Raleigh was in the room. He’ll get some help_.

And with that, he passed out.

 

* * *

 

Raleigh had looked up when Tantō cried out and watched in horror as the platform crashed across the room, taking Newt with it.

“Newt!” Raleigh screamed, sprinting across the Nest, dodging a spazzy kaiju on his way. He watched Newt hit the ground at angles that looked unnatural and _very_ painful.

“I need a medic in here!” Raleigh shouted before crashing on his knees right next to the scientist. Newt had already passed out; well, Raleigh _hoped_ he was passed out and not dead. A sharp cry from Tantō made Raleigh look up and realize that the kaiju was still going into hysterics and could very well crush them in his panic. It wasn’t a good idea to move injured people, but Raleigh figured it was either possible paralysis or death-by-kaiju so he dragged Newt to the door, which he promptly shut. The rumbling of Tantō’s freak-out could still be heard. Out of danger, Raleigh realized he was shaking, and not because he was scared for himself. Looking down at Newt’s unconscious form, he realized how terrified he’d been for Newt’s safety. So okay, he couldn’t deny that he definitely cared about the crazy scientist.

A medic was there almost as soon as Raleigh shut the door, and the reason why was apparent at the sight of a stuffy mathematician. Hermann must have seen what happened on the TVs in the lab.

“Idiot,” Hermann muttered, but Raleigh noticed the white of his face and the genuine fear in his eyes. His expression matched what Raleigh was feeling.

Raleigh hadn’t heard Newt’s checklist of all the injuries he thought he had sustained, but if he had, he would have laughed at Newt’s exaggeration. He had to have surgery for his leg and he definitely had a mild concussion but the rest was just a lot of bruising. The blood in his mouth had actually come from Newt accidentally biting his tongue. It was a perfect example of irony that Tantō’s wing had managed to save Newt’s life. Colleague

Throughout all of it, Raleigh was in and out of the medical wing almost more than Hermann. Looking down at Newt in the bed was weird. He realized he missed the way Newt never stopped moving, always adjusting something or talking or just _moving_. His stillness was making Raleigh nervous. Raleigh just wished he would wake up.

Newt did just that a few hours after the cast on his leg had set. Raleigh happened to walk in only a few moments afterward, holding a coffee, and he rushed to Newt’s side. The scientist was trying to sit up, but he immediately whimpered, and Raleigh put a hand on his shoulder. Raleigh looked him over, trying to assess pain levels and awareness.

“Hey there,” Raleigh said, and Newt squinted at him. His glasses were on the table, so Raleigh picked them up and handed them over. “Can you talk?”

 “I think so,” Newt said as he slipped his glasses on, but his voice was raspy. Raleigh suddenly remembered he was holding coffee and helped Newt drink it, trying to avoid touching the injury on his head. Newt made a face at the bitterness of Raleigh’s black coffee but he seemed to have appreciated it nonetheless. “Thanks.”

“Do you remember what happened?” Raleigh asked.

Newt shook his head and immediately winced.

“Let’s just say you nearly got creamed by a kaiju,” Raleigh said, suddenly perking up, the memory alone raising his pulse a little. “I thought you were dead back there and the doctors were worried you wouldn’t wake up. They said you were lucky you got away with a broken leg and a concussion.”

“Don’t forget my crushed dream of riding a flying kaiju,” Newt said with a lopsided grin.

Raleigh was taken aback by that. He didn’t know why he hadn’t expected a comment like that from Newt, but it made him so relieved to hear it. It was like a confirmation that the guy was well on his way to healing. Maybe it was this relief or the shock or maybe just an after-affect of the adrenaline that caused him to do what he did next.

“You’re the weirdest person I’ve ever met,” Raleigh laughed and then proceeded to plant a kiss on Newt’s lips.

This one didn’t last as long as Newt’s had because Raleigh shot up straight again almost right after he brushed lips with Newt. Newt was looking as shocked as he felt, his eyes wide and his lips parted in the beginning of a question.

“Um, I’m sorry,” Raleigh said, immediately standing up—knocking over his chair—and practically sprinting out of the hospital wing, but not before he checked to make sure no one had seen. Luckily, the floor seemed to be empty.

 

* * *

 

Newt laid his head back in the pillows, a billion thoughts running through his head. He was trying desperately to quash the giddiness of being kissed by Raleigh. Because Raleigh clearly felt terrible about it. The horror on his face was more obvious than Newt wanted to admit. But it made sense. Right? He was just some scientist who said and did the wrong thing at the wrong time. There was no reason for Raleigh to kiss him seriously.

“I’d ask who pissed in your morning coffee,” said Herc Hansen, emerging through the door, “but then I remembered it was a kaiju. That nearly killedyou.”

“Hello, Marshal,” Newt said. He hadn’t realized his emotions had been so obvious on his face.

Herc crossed his arms, towering over Newt’s bed. “Do you remember what we discussed?”

“We discuss a lot of things,” Newt prevaricated, knowing exactly what Herc was talking about and not wanting to discuss it in the slightest.

Herc narrowed his eyes and let out a breath very, very slowly, like he was trying to contain his rage. It was almost more intimidating than Pentecost’s outright anger and got Newt talking immediately.

“Oh come on, it was clearly _my_ mistake,” Newt protested. “I was hitting him with an ice-pick! You can’t pin this on him.”

“He could have killed you,” Herc said evenly, the anger brimming underneath a layer of calm.

“But it was his wing that saved me,” Newt pointed out.

“And what if it hadn’t?” Herc shouted. “Who would be here to make a case for a _goddamned kaiju_?”

Newt winced, but ever-determined, forced himself not to be fazed. “Then there wouldn’t be a kaiju and you’d be killing one of the best sources for reverse bioengineering available on this planet.”

“ _I don’t care about your stupid science_ ,” Herc shouted. Then he got calm, this time with practically no visible anger at all. “I care about your safety, Doctor Geiszler. We’ve learned a lot about kaiju, and from what I hear from Doctor Gottlieb, they aren’t about to come back anytime soon, so we don’t have to worry about them. We do, however, have to worry about you dying. You’re a rare man to find, Doctor Geiszler, and not just because you’re the only one willing to play with kaiju guts.”

“Do I detect some…. _tenderness_ in your tone?” Newt asked, genuinely touched on the inside.

Herc closed his eyes, but he was smiling. “If that will stop you from trying to kill yourself.”

Something clicked then, as Herc’s meaning registered in Newt’s mind. Maybe it was the words coupled with Raleigh’s kiss, but for the first time, he realized why everyone was so against his dangerous ideas. They actually cared if he died. They didn’t want to _lose_ him. For the first time, Newt felt important to people not because of what he could do, but because of _who he was_. It had been like that for a while—clearly Hermann cared if he offered to share the Drift load—but Newt was just too cynical to believe it until now.

Newt kept thinking about this realization long after Herc had gone.

 

* * *

 

“Jumping straight back to work already? You’re ridiculous,” Raleigh said almost as soon as he stepped off the elevator. Newt looked up on his way to his desk, balancing a plate of microscope slides along with his crutch, to see Raleigh leaned against the wall sucking on a candy.

“Oh, hey, great to see you too,” Newt shot back, sitting down at his desk and setting his crutch on one of the hooks made for Hermann’s cane. It was about a week since he’d woken up. The doctors had deemed his concussion healed and sent him on his way.

Raleigh raised an eyebrow. “Something got your panties in a twist?”

“Yeah, actually,” Newt said. “I’ve got a kaiju who’s getting bigger every day that I need to find a place for _and_ who needs to learn how to fly; I’ve got people waiting to kill the kaiju the second he messes up; I’m stuck on a freggin crutch; and on top of all of that, I’ve got you showing up here like nothing happened _calling me ridiculous_!” Newt shouted, throwing a slide, watching it shatter on the wall.

“Look, I said I’m sorry—“

“ _Don’t_ ,” Newt said, heaving a sigh. “I don’t really care that much.” He did, though, he really, _really_ did. “I’ve just…had a really bad day.”

“You want to talk about it?” Raleigh asked.

Newt turned around and glared.

Raleigh raised his hands. “Alright, I get it. I just came to do my job. I wasn’t really expecting you to be here. I’ll just grab the kaiju grub and get out of your hair.”

He sidled over to the wheeled tub labeled “Food for Tantō—HANDS OFF, HERMANN!” in Newt’s scratchy handwriting. Raleigh started pushing the tub to the elevator. Newt watched him for a while before sighing and asking, “Did you feed Tantō when I was in the medical wing?”

Raleigh stopped. “Yeah, I just told them to give him the same thing I fed him that day you fell. I know you change it almost every day, but he’s a growing kaiju so he needs a lot of food, right?”

“No, I mean, that’s—it’s fine. I was just making sure he didn’t starve,” Newt said. He looked back down at the microscope for a second before looking up again. “Oh, and, uh, thanks. For feeding him and everything.”

“Just doing my job,” Raleigh said with a grin and a lazy salute before pushing the tub into the elevator.

Newt tried to ignore the fact that he was blushing at Raleigh’s grin. God, he wished his mind would stop replaying that kiss over and over. Lying in that hospital bed for a week gave him too much time to think, and with no science to do, Raleigh had started to take up a majority of his thoughts. Newt realized that he was thinking of Raleigh not just as a friend—an attractive one, mind—but as more. He wanted to be kissed again. He wanted to kiss Raleigh. _Focus,_ Newt chastised himself.

For once, though, the thought of kissing Raleigh was more pleasant than the science in front of him. Because science was telling him Tantō was dying. While it seemed like the oxygen mask had worked, Tantō’s cuticles were starting to decay. It was barely noticeable unless you knew every inch of the kaiju, which Newt did. In normal reptiles, it was a sign of Vitamin A overdose, but there was no _way_ Tantō could have had an overdose of much of anything. And that was one of their problems—try as they might, Newt knew there was no way they were feeding a growing kaiju nearly enough food to sustain him. But with a world recovering from the Kaiju War—and a food supply that had been diminishing long before the Breach was opened—getting sufficient supplies just wasn’t feasible.

Newt put his elbows on the table, slipped his fingers behind his glasses and sighed into his palms. He was losing Tantō, and there was nothing his could do about it. _Why did I let myself get attached to this stupid thing?_

“Hey, Newt, I was thinking,” Raleigh said, announcing his return. Newt jumped and turned around, fumbling to shove his glasses back into the right place. “I could ride Tantō. I mean, if it’s that important for him to fly.”

“What?” Newt asked, completely thrown off.

“I said I could r—“

“No, I know what you said but…how? I mean you don’t even have the connection—“

“No, I know, but really, how hard can it be?” Raleigh said. “I can just teach him how to respond to me—I mean all it takes is an ice-pick—and it would be just like riding a horse. A flying one.”

Newt tilted his head to the side. “You think that will work?”

“Well, I mean, you’re the expert,” Raleigh said. “But you could be with me, and tell him what I’m doing, and that would probably help.”

“Oh,” Newt said, thinking it over. “Well, I guess that would work.”

“Great,” Raleigh said with a grin, turning around again. “I’ll be right back.”

“Okay…” Newt said, too stunned at this turn of events to really do much. He sat still until he heard the elevator begin its descent down again. When the doors opened again, Newt knew he _had_ to be dreaming. Raleigh was dressed in his drivesuit, like he was gearing up for another go in Gipsy Danger. The only difference was the parachute on his back.

“What are you—you’re doing this _now_?” Newt said immediately. He was proud of himself for getting those words out all. Raleigh in a t-shirt and jeans every day was distracting enough. Raleigh in a drivesuit was just not _fair_.

Raleigh laughed. “Unless you want to wait five weeks for your leg to heal.”

“Well, um…okay,” Newt said, nearly forgetting his crutch when he stood up. “Why are you doing this again?”

Raleigh shrugged as he stepped back into the elevator. “I figured you needed something to go right, and I thought I’d help with that.”

“Oh,” Newt said, trying to ignore his racing heartbeat. He risked another glance at Raleigh’s drivesuit. “You realize Tantō isn’t a Jaeger, right?”

“I’m aware,” Raleigh chuckled. “I’d just prefer my legs intact.”

Newt rolled his eyes as the elevator began its ascent.

 

* * *

 

Newt suppressed a snort of laughter. “Tantō thinks you’re deranged, just so you know. He’s comparing you to one of his parasites.”

“Yeah, well maybe if he paid attention to what I’m telling him to do, he’d figure out the _purpose_ ,” Raleigh said, grunting on the last word as he stabbed the ice-pick at Tantō’s rock-hard scale. It was the only way the kaiju could feel it. Raleigh himself was strapped in a harness attached to two ropes wrapped around Tantō’s horns, which were looking more like Otachi’s every day. It wasn’t a show-horse saddle, but it worked.

“He’s paying attention, he just wants you to know that there are other paths besides circles,” Newt called from the platform. Tantō had actually taken quite well to the training. It was probably Newt providing explanations but regardless, Tantō was riding around at Raleigh’s control with absolutely no problems. “And you shouldn’t tap him so hard.”

“You ever think that maybe it’s become less of a tap and more me letting out my frustration?” Raleigh shouted back.

“Hey, no abusing the kaiju!” Newt teased.

“I’ll stop abusing him when he stops calling me a parasite,” Raleigh said. “I’m doing something nice for him here.”

Newt turned around at the sound of a door opening behind him. Hermann came through it looking confused and a little concerned.

“What on earth is that _cowboy_ doing?” Hermann asked.

“Doing what cowboys do best,” Newt said with a grin. “He offered to fly Tantō.”

“He did _what_?” Hermann asked, shocked. “Does he know the risk he’s taking?”

“Of course he does,” Newt said, rolling his eyes. “And we’re doing everything to minimize that risk.”

“Oh I’m sure,” Hermann grumbled.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Newt demanded.

“Don’t think I haven’t noticed the way you ogle at the man,” Hermann accused, lowering his voice.

“I do not _ogle_ , Hermann,” Newt protested. “Ogling is creepy.”

“Well you’re doing something and it’s becoming increasingly obvious,” Hermann argued.

“Oh please, I had to be witness to you pining after Vanessa,” Newt shot back. “That was painful.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard you guys talk to each other so quietly before,” Raleigh interrupted, sidling Tantō next to the platform. “What are you doing here, Doctor Gottlieb?”

“Just a poor attempt to talk some logic into my colleague,” Hermann responded grumpily, but Newt noticed how Hermann had brightened at Raleigh’s respectful use of “Doctor Gottlieb” that Hermann liked so much. _Quite a charmer, that one,_ Newt thought. “But it seems I’m getting nowhere, so I’ll just get back to work.”

“See you around, Doctor,” Raleigh said as Hermann turned around. Then he looked at Newt. “Alright, I think I’m ready to get out of this thing. Tantō seems to know what he’s doing, and I haven’t fallen out. I think that qualifies as an accomplishment.”

It was a testament to how big Tantō was getting that he was now taller than the platform, and the kaiju had to actually duck his head in order to get Raleigh level with the platform. Newt helped Raleigh out of the make-shift saddle and onto the platform. Newt realized that they were a little closer than absolutely necessary, but he forced himself to say, “Thanks for doing this.”

Raleigh shrugged and stepped away to take the contraption off of Tantō. “It’s nothing. If anything, I’m more qualified for this than anything else I’ve been doing.” He gestured to the drivesuit. “Anyway, I’ve got to return this before Herc notices it’s missing.”

“Right, yeah, I don’t want him more mad at me than he already is,” Newt said, waving Raleigh off.

Raleigh gave another lazy salute and walked out the door.

 

* * *

 

Raleigh took a deep, slow breath, nodded to Newt and patted Tantō’s head. He was strapped in the harness again, but this was the big day. For the first time since he’d woken up, Tantō was about to leave the Nest. The main goal was getting him to fly, but the assessment would start as soon as he walked through the door. A hundred various weapons were all ready to kill a rampaging kaiju, just in case Tantō failed that test. No one was willing to completely trust the kaiju’s calm demeanor.

Like any mother-hen with a baby about to leave their nest, Newt was nervous. He’d been babbling all morning as he helped with Raleigh’s rig, and he was still twitchy as he called Tantō toward the doors. Newt was currently rolling up his sleeves, the spots of color from his tattoos visible from Raleigh’s elevated position. It seemed to be some sort of nervous tick that Newt rolled and unrolled his sleeves when he was nervous.

“You got to let the chick leave the Nest,” Raleigh said through his headset. Raleigh had it connected to various personnel, but he had switched briefly to a private channel between him and Newt.

Newt turned around and looked up before responding, “I think this is a little different than that.”

“Not really. Just a matter of size,” Raleigh teased. “Point is, you’ve got to stop freaking out, or you’re going to send Tantō into hysterics.”

All Raleigh got back in response was a sigh. Newt knew he was right. Tantō was showing signs of nervousness just because Newt was. Raleigh had noticed pretty quickly that the scientist and kaiju seemed to share emotions. When Newt was happy, Tantō seemed happy. When Tantō was feeling particularly unwell, Newt almost seemed sick that day. It certainly had to do with the mind connection, but Raleigh had never seen it as obviously as it was in these two. _They always say people look like their dogs,_ Raleigh remembered, laughing at the mental image of Newt turning partially kaiju. It would probably make the scientist’s day.

When Tantō’s nose passed the frames of the huge doorways, Raleigh shook his head to focus, bracing for a rampage. Raleigh looked around for the soldiers he knew were there. It wasn’t until one moved that he realized they were hiding in every nook and cranny there was. _They don’t want to scare him_ , Raleigh realized, wondering if that had been Newt’s idea. It probably was.

Raleigh and Tantō followed Newt until they got to the launch bay. When the doors opened to what was typically a Jaeger deployment pad, Tantō’s head perked up (Raleigh moving with it), but he didn’t do much beyond that. Raleigh briefly considered the irony of leading a kaiju onto a deployment pad where Jaeger would be sent off to kill his kin, but he shoved the thought away. He had to focus. Instead, Raleigh looked at Newt to confirm that Tantō wasn’t thinking any evil, scheming thoughts. Newt seemed calm from Raleigh’s high position, and though Raleigh couldn’t be completely sure, he thought he detected a small smile on Newt’s face. That was definitely a good sign.

About a dozen Jet Hawks were positioned on the deployment pad. Raleigh and Tantō paused as crews set up the harness Newt had created from various scraps of Jaeger material. Various points had cables that connected to four Jet Hawks per connection point. While this was happening, Tantō had leaned down to be pet by Newt, effectively bringing the two humans in talking distance.

“You ready for this?” Raleigh asked.

Newt adjusted his glasses— _That has to be the thousandth time he’s done that_ , Raleigh noted—and said, “As ready as I’ll ever be. I mean there’s no predicting what he’s going to do, and what if—“

“Me too,” Raleigh interrupted.

Newt winced, knowing full well just how much he was babbling. Raleigh wasn’t about to say it, but he actually thought Newt was endearing. He’d been amused by the eccentric scientist ever since they’d met in that elevator, surprised by his and Hermann’s interaction and the enthusiasm Newt had with kaiju. Yeah, Newt had been pretty endearing from the start, but Raleigh was starting to realize how much Newt’s quirks were affecting him. The way he adjusted his glasses and sleeves, his babbling, his over-protectiveness for Tantō…it had just been funny, maybe adorable, before. Something for Raleigh to smile a little at. But Raleigh realized as his heart lifted at Newt’s twitchy figure that Newt wasn’t just someone he could smile at once in a while—he was someone who Raleigh looked forward to seeing every day, someone Raleigh _really_ didn’t want to lose.

Raleigh swallowed, but before he had a chance to redirect his thoughts to intelligent conversation, he heard the all-clear, and the Jet Hawk helicopters lifted off the ground. Newt had made sure they weren’t already in the air so that Tantō could learn from them. He’d described Otachi’s flying style as sort of like a helicopter, only his wings were vertical. These were probably the thoughts Newt was sending to Tantō as they walked over to the deploy pad.

Once the Jet Hawks had gotten into position in the air to wait for Tantō, Raleigh looked at Newt. The scientist nodded, telling Raleigh that he’d shown Tantō all he could.

“Alright, buddy, I want to get out of this alive, you hear?” Raleigh muttered, knowing Tantō couldn’t hear him. He held onto a rope with one hand and tapped his ice-pick on the spot on Tantō’s cuticle that told Tantō to open his wings. Tantō did so with a roar. _He’s definitely getting less cute and more terrifying by the day_ , Raleigh realized as he remembered the squeaks Tantō used to make.

“Alright, it’s go time,” Raleigh said to Newt, signaling the scientist to start sending flying thoughts to Tantō before Raleigh hit a new spot on Tantō’s scales—the spot that would signal flying from then on.

Tantō tentatively moved his wings up and down, learning the most efficient, natural way of doing so with each stroke. The movement sped up as Tantō tested things until they were a blur of motion. And then…they weren’t on the ground anymore. Raleigh laughed as Tantō slowly lifted off the ground. The Jet Hawks moved with the kaiju, and Raleigh realized he should probably give Tantō a direction before they went higher than the Jet Hawks could reach. With a tap, he directed Tantō to move forward. Tantō—by the sound of his roars—was getting excited by this new experience, but he still paid attention and began moving forward.

And then they were flying.

Raleigh let out a whoop of joy as some nervous knot unfurled in his chest. He and Tantō were flying. Tantō seemed to have no desire to kill anyone, and he almost seemed as happy as Raleigh was. He wasn’t a smooth flier—he would have to right himself and figure out how to correctly move his wings—but it was still unbelievable. They shot through the clouds, Raleigh’s drivesuit providing ample protection from the sun, oxygen deprivation, and change in air pressure. It was like they were suddenly in a new, calmer world. The sun shown so much brighter and the clouds were like a soft floor. Raleigh let Tantō tilt to the side so that his wings skimmed one cloud, causing it to break apart. The only thing ruining the illusion of being alone was the beat of Jet Hawks behind them.

“What’s it like?” came a soft question from Raleigh’s private channel with Newt.

“It’s…” Raleigh searched for the words. “It’s like nothing I’ve ever experienced.”

“How’s Tantō holding up?” Raleigh heard the concern in Newt’s tone.

“From what I can figure, he’s having the time of his life,” Raleigh said. “You can breathe now.”

Raleigh could practically hear Newt’s eye-roll. “Well you should probably head back soon. Tantō’s wings will wear out soon since he’s never done this before.”

“Alright, mom, we’ll be home by eight,” Raleigh teased.

“Shut up and get your ass back here,” Newt said irritably, but he was too relieved to have any venom behind it.

“Yes, sir,” Raleigh laughed. He signaled Tantō to turn around.

The landing was where the only problem came in. Tantō, not realizing how quickly he needed to stop, crashed into the landing pad. Raleigh ducked between his horns as the kaiju rolled, eventually coming to a stop in the middle of the deployment room. Everyone crowded the kaiju, checking the safety of both of them. At Raleigh’s excited laughter, though, they all relaxed. He’d never had this much fun in his life.

Tantō was led easily back to his Nest, but Raleigh couldn’t find Newt. The reason was obvious when they got to the Nest, where it looked like a huge feast was set out for Tantō, with Newt on the platform. Raleigh forced the kaiju to focus with sharp taps and led them over to Newt so he could get off first. As soon as the ropes were untied from Tantō’s horns, the kaiju bounded over to the dozens of tubs laid out him with every kind of animal Tantō had ever eaten and immediately dug in.

Raleigh laughed before turning to Newt. “He’s one spoiled kaiju.”

Newt made a face. “It’s a reward for him doing so well. Besides, he’s had more exercise today than any day in his life. He needs the energy.”

“ _Spoiled_ ,” Raleigh insisted.

Newt huffed and turned around. Raleigh noticed the bounce in his step, though. It was the happiest he’d seen Newt since he’d met him.

 

* * *

 

Newt looked back on the day that Tantō first flew as the last really happy day he’d had with the kaiju.

Oh yeah, he’d been super happy that day. Tantō was getting bigger every day. Seeing him walk through the hall proved that—the kaiju was nearly as tall and wide as the hallway itself, and there was no way he would have been able to fit in any elevator. Newt had never seen anything as awesome—in all senses of the word—as when Tantō first lifted off that deployment pad. Sure, he’d seen Otachi do it, but he hadn’t raised Otachi, and he hadn’t feared for Otachi’s life if it went wrong and felt the relief after it _hadn’t_ gone wrong.

Newt was jamming out to his music without a care in the world for the rest of the day. Hermann couldn’t even get under his skin. The day after Newt got his cast off, he’d jumped on Tantō’s back. He’d been issued a drivesuit for the task, and Raleigh had teased him relentlessly about it. Newt didn’t care though, especially not after he’d gotten to the air. Raleigh had been right—there was no experience that would compare to riding a kaiju.

But things went downhill from there. Sure, Tantō got to have regular flying times now, and he seemed happier because of it, but that was really the only positive. Because Tantō’s cells were still dying and the kaiju was getting sicker as each day passed. The flying helped some, but it also put stress on a weakening kaiju, especially one with a defective lung. Newt knew he should stop the flying sessions, but not only did they make Tantō happy, Raleigh seemed truly joyful for the first time since Newt had met him. The Ranger had ditched his candies—which Newt knew now were some sort of coping mechanism for him—in favor of flying. Newt just couldn’t bring himself to tell the Ranger. He regretted that weeks later after the worst incident anyone could imagine occurred.

Part of Tantō’s reaction to the sickness was a bit of irritability. It wasn’t homicidal irritability, more of a restlessness with no outlet. Tantō had begun circling his Nest more often. Newt attributed it to the newfound energy from flying, but he realized it for what it was when Tantō started shoving his shoulder into the walls. It wasn’t really a problem, though. The walls were built for that sort of pressure. They _weren’t_ , however, built for a full-on kaiju assault.

It happened late one night. Hermann and Newt were both still up. Newt was just going through the saddening results of the latest tests he’d been running of Tantō. It was by pure chance that he’d looked up at the TVs just in time to see Tantō beginning a headlong run toward one side of the Nest.

Newt jumped from his chair, but there was nothing to stop Tantō. Newt didn’t need the audio feed to hear the crash that Tantō made when he hit the wall. Yet another testament to Tantō’s growth was the fact that he’d done the exact same thing on his first day—but this time he took a major chunk of wall with him. Hermann even felt the earth-shaking vibration.

“What in—“

“Oh my God!” Newt shouted, sprinting towards the elevator. To give himself something to do, Newt pulled out his phone and called Raleigh. The Ranger picked up almost immediately.

“I’m on my way. What the hell just happened?” Raleigh asked. He sounded like he’d been violently awakened.

“I don’t even know!” Newt shouted spastically. “Tantō, he—the wall—I’ve never—“

“Whoa, take a breath,” Raleigh said, though he sounded as freaked out as Newt felt. “What happened to Tantō?”

“He just rammed his head into a wall!” Newt shouted.

“What? Why?” Raleigh demanded, sounding less calm than he was before. “Is he loose? Did he hurt anyone?”

“I don’t know, just meet me at the Nest,” Newt ordered before hanging up. He sprinted out of the elevator, assessing the damage as he went. Tantō hadn’t gone through the whole wall, but he was definitely trying. By the looks of it, he’d be through soon. Behind him, there were already crews, shouting at each other. It was like déjà-vu, seeing personnel crowding around a raging kaiju. The weapons were back, only this time they seemed to be affecting Tantō even less than they had that first day. He just seemed like he was on a destructive rampage, like—like the kaiju before him, whose only instinct was to attack everything in their path. Newt’s heart sunk, but he didn’t have time to process it.

“Tantō!” he shouted. Just as before, the kaiju stopped, but he wasn’t as infatuated as last time. He just kind of paused before continuing. Newt made his way closer and shouted the kaiju’s name even more forcefully.

Eventually he came within Tantō’s arm-length. He heard the shouts of everyone else telling him to get out of the way, but he ignored them. “Tantō, stop!”

Tantō whirled around, growling as he made eye-contact with Newt. Newt held his hand out, hoping Tantō would take the offer to be pet and therefore calmed. The kaiju was silent for a second, and that gave Newt hope…before Tantō suddenly reared up. Newt quickly realized he was preparing for a strike, and he closed his eyes, waiting for the blow.

It came, but in the form of a human body tackling him out of harm’s way. After hitting the ground, Newt opened his eyes to find Raleigh braced over him, breathing heavily with anger in his eyes. It was only later that Newt would look back on that moment with a bright red blush to his cheeks. At the time, he was more concerned with the events around him.

“He just tried to—“ Newt stammered out, but Raleigh got up, pulling Newt with him.

“ _What the hell were you thinking!_ ” Raleigh screamed, a hand still fisted in Newt’s shirt.

“He’s never not listened to me before. I’ve never seen him that angry.” Newt knew he was rambling, but he almost got killed, so he was pretty sure that was allowed.

“Don’t _ever_ try something like that again,” Raleigh shouted. Newt didn’t really know when he’d get a chance to try something like this again, but he appreciated the sentiment.

“Everyone get back!” That was Marshal Hansen, newly arrived and _pissed_. Newt trembled when their eyes met for just a split second. “You’re not going to stop it, and you’re making it angrier.”

Everybody immediately obeyed (the military personnel hesitantly), crowding against the far side of the Nest. Newt watched with Raleigh as Tantō continued his assault at the wall for another minute before he started to slow down. A violent cough signaled the end of it. Tantō settled down into the rubble he’d made, clearly exhausted. For once, Newt was thankful for that defective lung, as it was probably the only thing that prevented complete destruction of the Shatterdome.

When the dust had finally settled, Herc was the first to respond

“You lot,” Herc said, pointing to the conglomeration of Shatterdome employees, “get back to your posts. Prepare a clean-up and construction team. This kaiju still needs a cage.”

They all herded out, clearly relieved to be relieved. Herc took a second before he rounded on Newt and Raleigh. Newt felt like he was going to puke, he was so scared.

“You two,” he barked harshly, jabbing a finger in their direction, “come with me. _Now_.”

“But Tant—“ Newt, never one for following order well began.

“It’s down for now,” Herc interrupted, already on his way out.

Raleigh grabbed Newt’s arm and dragged him toward Herc, hissing, “Are you _trying_ to get yourself killed today?”

As it turned out, Herc’s destination was simply the hallway outside the Nest. Newt jumped when the Marshal whipped around, but he wasn’t completely thrown off-guard. He’d been preparing an explanation since he’d gotten on the elevator.

“Herc, I can expl—“

“Shut it!” Raleigh snapped, jerking Newt’s arm, which he was still holding. Raleigh himself had already snapped to some form of attention.

“No, no, let him speak,” Herc said, crossing his arms. “I’d like to see you try to dig yourself out of _this_ hole, Doctor Geiszler.”

Newt gulped at the intensity of Herc’s glare, his drying mouth not helping him get the words out. “Um, well, Tantō’s left lung isn’t fully formed, and he’s kind of not on his home planet, so he’s been trying to adjust to it, but that hasn’t been going too well because he’s not getting enough nutrients, so he’s like any sick, wild animal, responding with aggression because….becausehesdying.”

Raleigh snapped his head in Newt’s direction. “Wait _what_?”

“Oh, so you weren’t aware of this, Becket?” Herc asked.

“I didn’t tell him,” Newt said, refusing to look at Raleigh. “He—a lot was going on.”

Raleigh’s grip on Newt tightened almost painfully before he let go.

“If you knew the kaiju was dying, why didn’t you have him killed?” Herc demanded.

“Because I was trying to save him, you idiot!” Newt shouted angrily.

“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t kill this thing this instant.”

Newt swallowed but couldn’t think of a good enough answer.

“Right,” Herc said, starting to turn around.

“Wait!” Newt shouted. “Just give me a little longer! There are a few tests I—“

“No!” Herc shouted. “No more tests! No more experiments! This kaiju has become dangerous, and we don’t have any more room for error.”

“ _Please_.” Newt wasn’t really one to beg, but he wasn’t ashamed to be begging now. “He’s going to be sleeping more again. He can’t have more than a month. If he even starts to growl at anyone, I’ll hand him over. But he’s dying anyway. Just let it run its course. I can still analyze the decay of his body; find out exactly what it is that’s killing him. That’s what you want right? Things that kill kaiju? I can even work on some euthanasia. Just….let me say goodbye.”

Herc narrowed his eyes before turning to Raleigh. “What do you think, Raleigh?”

Newt looked up at Raleigh, who was avoiding his gaze. “I…I think you should give him another chance.”

 “They’ve both got you under their spell, Becket,” Herc muttered. Newt was sure he heard that wrong. Both? Who was the other one? Certainly not him. “Fine, you let this thing die off. But if anything like this happens, I’ll have both of your heads.”

“Yes, sir,” Raleigh said immediately.

Newt could only breathe a sigh of relief as Herc walked away.

Raleigh turned to leave as well and Newt caught up with him saying, “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about him. You hate me, don’t you?”

“No, I get it. I appreciate the gesture,” Raleigh responded. Newt winced when he pulled a cherry candy out of his pocket. “I’m going to go help the clean-up crew. I’ll make sure Tantō’s safe. You get some sleep, alright?”

Newt snorted, knowing that Raleigh knew he was just going to go straight back to his lab and work on something. Sleep was just not going to be possible. At least he could try to distract himself from this mess with science and blaring music.

 

* * *

 

Three days later, Tantō still hadn’t woken up.

The construction team had built a makeshift wall to cover up the hole Tantō had made. It would be like paper if Tantō tried to attack it again, but it was really just there so Tantō didn’t get any ideas about walking around the Shatterdome. But Newt was still worried that Tantō wouldn’t wake up. Maybe his outburst had been his last act, and this was just the unconsciousness that preceded death. Newt would never get to see him again, never get to pet him, never get to fly him. He’d just be gone.

Newt often spent time sitting on the platform, the gate on it opened and his legs dangling off the edge. Only here, looking down at the kaiju— _his_ kaiju that _he_ had raised for the past, what, year?—did he let himself cry. He hadn’t meant to get so attached to Tantō. Hell, he hadn’t known he _was_ this attached to Tantō—until he was faced with the prospect of never seeing him again. He hadn’t realized how much of an impact Tantō had made on him—how much Tantō had become a part of his daily life. And now, just as he was realizing it, was when it would all be over. Because that was just Newt’s luck.

Newt didn’t hear Raleigh open the door, just noticed him when the Ranger sat down, his right thigh pressed against Newt’s. Newt was just glad his tears had dried up, but his eyes had to be very obviously red. So he kept them on Tantō.

“You’ve been avoiding me,” Raleigh began.

“I’ve been here,” Newt argued.

“Not when I’m here,” Raleigh said. “I already told you, I don’t hate you.”

“No, I know…” Newt trailed off, unable to come up with a decent excuse.

“Do you hate me?” Raleigh asked, causing Newt’s head to whip around to face him.

“What? No—God no,” Newt insisted, laughing at the irony of that question. Oh right, on top of crying over a dying kaiju, Newt was also dealing with renewed feelings for Raleigh. Once someone saves your life and comes to your defense, a school-boy crush starts to become a lot more serious. The thing was, Newt didn’t know how to deal with it. He’d never been good with the social stuff in the first place. Telling someone you’ve developed serious feelings for them was something Newt was _not_ prepared to deal with—cue avoiding the subject of those feelings.

Raleigh let out a frustrated grunt. “Then wh—“

“Look, I don’t know either, okay?” Newt interrupted, knowing he wouldn’t be able to deal with Raleigh’s questions. “You’re just too much to deal with right now.”

“I’m what?”

“Nothing.” Newt looked back down at Tantō.

Raleigh took a deep breath. “You know, you’re not the only one who’s going to miss Tantō, ok? So you don’t have to deal with it alone.”

Newt wasn’t sure if it was a change of subject, but he went with it. “You really think you’re willing to deal with me in my bad times? After seeing me in my good times?”

“I’d like to be with you through both,” Raleigh said.

Newt blushed at the implications behind those words. Suddenly, he was hyper-aware of the heat radiating off Raleigh’s thigh. Now was time to extract himself from this complicated situation. Newt started moving to stand up. “Look, it’s really not fair for you to say things like that when it’s exactly wh—“

Raleigh grabbed Newt’s arm and pulled him back down. “Dude, you’re a genius, but you’re so stupid when it comes to people.”

Newt had the decency for a split second to feel offended by that until he realized how close Raleigh had gotten, and suddenly everything else flew out the window. It was just Raleigh, his hand cupping Newt’s cheek and…and then his lips, his beautiful, if chapped lips, pressed against Newt’s in a chaste but long kiss. Or maybe that was just Newt being lost in the moment, losing his hold on the concept of time. As long as it seemed, though, Raleigh pulled away far too soon. Newt’s heart was racing, threatening to beat its way out of his chest. Newt took forever to get his thoughts in working order, but Raleigh seemed willing to wait.

The first thing Newt could think to say was, “Isn’t this the part where you run away in terror?”

Raleigh broke into a laugh. “No, I think this is the part where I kiss you again.”

“That sounds like a good idea,” Newt agreed as Raleigh leaned forward again.

 

* * *

 

Raleigh really hadn’t planned on kissing Newt. He’d just come to sit and watch Tantō because—even slowly dying—the kaiju was somehow relaxing. Raleigh, caught off-guard by Newt’s figure leaning against the railing of the platform, had to stand for a second and calm his rapidly beating heart (because he was surprised, of course) before sinking down next to the scientist.

When Newt turned his red-rimmed eyes toward Raleigh, that was it. The floodgates opened and all the feelings Raleigh had been suppressing burst forth in an almost unbearable wave. And then the stupidly adorable, over-passionate, unconventional scientist had to go and imply that the feelings were mutual, and then…well, okay, maybe Raleigh hadn’t planned for it, but it was totally worth it.

Raleigh probably would have kissed Newt all night, but they were rudely interrupted by the earth-shattering roar of a kaiju. They both jumped at the sound. They turned to find Tantō doing a slow version of his happy body-wiggle, looking much happier than he had before he’d gone to sleep. Raleigh knew that Newt would be able to see all the signs of Tantō’s decay, but to Raleigh, Tantō looked like nothing had happened.

“He’s awake!” Newt shouted, jumping up frantically. Raleigh briefly resigned himself as second to the kaiju before Newt knelt down and grabbed his hand. Feeling instantly better, Raleigh got up and let Newt drag him down the hallway to the elevator. Despite Newt’s supposed giddiness, his silence on the elevator and his death grip on Raleigh’s hand gave away Newt’s anguish. It didn’t matter that Tantō was awake now because in a few week’s time, he’d be dead—by natural causes or by human weapons.

In the Nest, Tantō wiggled his way in their direction. _With a limp_ , Raleigh noted. Newt must have realized it too, because his hand squeezed Raleigh’s even harder before letting go to pet Tantō’s nose.

“Hey buddy, how you feeling?” Newt asked shakily before putting his forehead on Tantō’s nose. Tantō’s whine told Raleigh there was some mind-connection thing going on, and Newt confirmed this when he whispered, “The Drift hangover is getting weaker.”

“Is that why he wouldn’t listen to you back there?” Raleigh asked.

“Probably,” Newt sighed. “It will be miserable for him if we lose the connection completely…euthanasia might make it easier on him.”

Raleigh realized that Newt had taken a calm, logical tone that didn’t allow for emotion. He stepped forward and put a hand on one of Newt’s. “You can worry about that when he goes back to sleep. You don’t want his last thoughts from you to be morbid, do you?”

There was the barest hint of a smile on Newt’s face. “No you’re right. Let’s feed him. He’s always liked that.”

Raleigh nodded and went to go get the food bucket.

 

* * *

 

They stayed in the Nest the rest of the night, feeding Tantō and playing with him. They forced themselves to have fun, and Newt even managed a genuine laugh at one point. When Tantō was finally asleep, they both headed to the elevator in which Newt tentatively took Raleigh’s hand.

“This is ok, right?” Newt asked. “Because I’m not really sure how these things work.”

Raleigh grinned. “It’s fine, but you know you’re allowed to stand closer than a foot away, right?”

“Right, of course,” Newt said, shifting so that they weren’t so far apart.

Raleigh glanced up at the numbers on the elevator. “Why are we going down?”

Newt glanced up. “Well I was going to do some exp—“

Raleigh stepped forward, pressing the STOP button, turning off all the lights but the emergency one. “When exactly was the last time you slept?”

“Um…” Newt couldn’t really remember the _exact_ day that he’d last gotten some sleep, and that hesitation was enough for Raleigh.

“Dude, you’re getting sleep, even if I have to be there to force you,” Raleigh said.

Newt let go of Raleigh’s hand to cross his arms but otherwise hid his irritation with humor. “Did you just suggest sleeping together? I’m pretty sure that’s at least a third-date thing. We haven’t even had a first date!”

“Not like that, you perv,” Raleigh said with an eye-roll. “But I can’t just let you stay up for a week.”

“You said we could work after Tantō was asleep, and he just fell asleep,” Newt said knowing full well that he was twisting Raleigh’s words and that he was shamelessly pouting. Maybe it was that or the lingering sadness surely shining through Newt’s eyes, but Raleigh immediately moved to let the elevator run again.

“Fine, but I’m staying with you, so you don’t fall asleep in kaiju guts or something,” Raleigh said.

When they got there, Newt went straight to work. Raleigh went to go sit on a stool and watch. Newt felt a little sympathy leaving Raleigh in the dust, but honestly, he was in a race against time. He had to find something to put Tantō down peacefully without...without damaging his internal organs so that Newt could look at them later.  Raleigh would understand—if he didn’t, well, he’d made a huge mistake in initiating this relationship.

Newt went through his papers. His whole life was reverse-engineering, so he could base euthanasia off of what kept Tantō alive. One death would be a direct oxygen line. But gassing had been outlawed by the Humane Society or something because it was a terrible way to go. There was no syringe big enough to give the dose and no needle strong enough to break through its hide. _What’s the fastest way to kill a kaiju?_ And then Newt realized who he was sitting in the room with.

“Hey Raleigh, when you guys fought kaiju, were there any that _didn’t_ die by…utter destruction?”

Raleigh pondered that but as time went by (and as he thought through the death of every kaiju) he looked more and more guilty. “Uh…no.”

Right, no help there. All kaiju were killed by nukes until the Jaeger came, Newt remembered, and Jaeger were just fighting machines. But maybe if Newt could get some sort of nuclear warhead filled with…hydrogen peroxide! Double the oxygen, add in hydrogen that Tantō also wasn’t taking to very well. And then various other execution techniques came to mind.

“Wait, didn’t Gipsy Danger behead Yamarashi?” Newt asked Raleigh.

“Well, yeah, but I didn’t think that counted as—“

“No, you’re right,” Newt interrupted. “It doesn’t.”

 _The fact that I even thought that,_ Newt thought with horror. So the options were gassing, lethal…nuclear ingestion, or— _what am I DOING?!_ Newt’s mind was suddenly screaming. Here he had spent _months_ doing everything he could to keep Tantō alive and here he was planning his kaiju’s demise. _His_ kaiju because Newt couldn’t deny that he raised Tantō like a pet, like a member of the family.

“You doing alright?” Raleigh asked tentatively when Newt stopped shuffling papers.

“What the hell am I doing?” Newt said again, only it came out as a whisper, and his voice cracked at the end of the sentence.

“What do you mean?” Raleigh asked, sliding his hand across the table to rest it on Newt’s.

“I c—I can’t just k-kill him,” Newt choked out. His eyes were stinging, but he’d shed all his tears earlier that evening. “After everything I’ve—I’ve…”

Raleigh stood up and rounded the table, putting his arms around Newt, the scientist responding by standing up and clinging to Raleigh’s shirt. “You’re not killing him, the Earth is. You’re making it easier on him.”

“That doesn’t help,” Newt laugh-sobbed.

“Yeah, sorry,” Raleigh said, pulling Newt closer.

Newt hadn’t realized Raleigh had inched them closer to the couch in Newt’s lab until Raleigh carefully sat down, still holding Newt. He’d begun running a hand through the scientist’s hair as well which was…actually very soothing. So soothing, in fact, that Newt felt his eyelids droop.

“You’re trying to get me to sleep, aren’t you?” Newt murmured against Raleigh’s chest.

“Maybe a little,” Raleigh admitted. “You’ll feel better when you wake up.”

Newt attempted to scoff but it only came out as a breath of air. After that, all he remembered was the darkness of sleep. Unbeknownst to him, Raleigh fell asleep almost immediately after.


	5. Part IV

Newt jerked awake when the lights snapped on, announcing Hermann’s arrival. Hermann was easily identified by a disgusted scoffing. Newt tried to ignore it and go back to sleep. He pulled his hand tighter—and realized it wrapped around the abdomen of another person. Newt’s eyes snapped open as all the memories of the day before came flooding back. So kissing Raleigh hadn’t been a dream and neither had…neither had the decision to euthanize Tantō.

Newt sat up and decided to focus on Hermann, who was thumping his cane a little harder than necessary. “I’d ask why you can’t be quiet when people are sleeping, but then I remembered that you wouldn’t recognize common curtsey if it hit you in the face.”

“Says the man having orgies in the lab,” Hermann shot back without missing a step.

“An orgy requires more than two people, Hermann,” Newt corrected. “And you’re _not_ invited to help make it one.”

The noise that came out of Hermann was the noise of a man who didn’t know how else to vent such a frustration except to make an almost inhuman noise that almost certainly damaged his throat somehow.

It was a noise Newt heard directed at him near daily, and therefore he simply ignored it. Unfortunately, a previously-sleeping Raleigh could not.

“Newt, don’t give Doctor Gottlieb a heart attack,” he murmured, eyes still closed. Newt turned around to gape at Raleigh, but he wasn’t done. “And Doctor Gottlieb, stop harassing my boyfriend.”

Newt’s heart nearly stopped right there. Whoa, when did the boyfriend thing happen? Newt looked over as Raleigh rubbed his face. _Probably a still-waking-up thing_ , Newt realized. But didn’t that mean--? Newt just wanted to play that last sentence on loop for days on end. _Which is exactly what a teenage girl would want to do_ , Newt chastised himself.

“Is Tantō awake?” Raleigh asked as he sat up.

Newt’s heart immediately sank after its high, as the pain of the inevitable came back in full force. How could something as great as Newt’s relationship with Raleigh come at the exact same time as something as unbearably awful as Tantō’s last days? Who made those rules in Newt’s life?

“Very much so,” Hermann answered Raleigh’s question, pointing to the screen where Tantō was circling the Nest.

Raleigh stood up. “Ok, well we should go feed him. Newt, you want to come?”

“Yeah, totally,” Newt said, jumping up to follow Raleigh to the elevator.

Raleigh was like a statue as he watched the doors close. And then as soon as they did, Raleigh turned, grabbed Newt by the waist, and kissed him. Newt kept better control of his heart to make sure it didn’t crash like last time, but he was certainly immensely pleased and returned the kiss in full. Yeah, okay, so they both had morning breath, but honestly, Newt was taking all he could get. He wasn’t exactly one for kissing all the time.

“I wanted to do that earlier, but I wasn’t sure how much you wanted Hermann to see,” Raleigh said.

“Ok,” Newt squeaked out breathlessly.

Raleigh laughed as the elevator doors opened and they went to work feeding Tantō. Newt tried to focus on the euthanasia methods for Tantō, but every time he did, he’d have to stop for a second, and Raleigh would get suspicious.

“I hate to ask this,” Raleigh said one of the times. “But did you ever…figure out something?”

Newt stopped reaching for another fish. “I…I think so.”

 

* * *

 

“I’ll be there with you the whole time, I promise,” Raleigh was saying. “If you feel like it’s too much, just stop, ok?”

Newt nodded. It was the day of Tantō’s euthanasia, and Raleigh had been going on for the last half hour with his speech. Newt had tuned out half of it. Not because he didn’t care but more because if he thought about it, he wouldn’t even be able to go through with any of it.

The elevator doors opened, but before Newt could walk out, Raleigh pulled him back for a quick kiss. “You can do this, alright? I’m right here.”

Newt nodded again, and they walked out into the Nest, where a team of lab assistants and a few military personnel were milling about, giving Tantō a wide berth. There were machines on the outskirts of the Nest that gave out vitals but none that were attached to Tantō directly. That was Newt’s doing. He hadn’t wanted Tantō freaking out over the crowd of people—especially those with weapons—or over being hooked up to machines. Not now.

Tantō spotted Newt, but he had gotten so weak that all he could do was lift his head and squawk. Newt rushed over immediately and pet his nose, the scientist in him automatically noting how fast degeneration had gone since the day Tantō had attacked the wall. Tantō was practically dead already. _But he’ll go through less pain this way_ , _even if he were to die of natural causes the next day,_ Newt reminded himself.

“Sir, the tanks are ready to switch, and the solution is in the tank,” a lab assistant said.

“Get me the hose,” Newt said.

“But sir, I thought—“

“Just get me the damn hose!” Newt snapped. “And stop calling me sir!”

There was a hand—Raleigh’s hand—immediately on Newt’s arm as the lab assistant scurried away. 

“Sorry,” Newt breathed, rubbing his forehead. Raleigh just squeezed his shoulder in response and let go again.

The girl came back with the hose in tow, and Newt took it gingerly. He stepped up to Tantō, passing as many happy thoughts as he could into the kaiju’s brain. “Change the tanks!”

Lab assistants hurried forward with moving platforms and changed out the tanks as fast as they could. Tantō’s new tanks would be oxygen, which would hopefully put Tantō asleep as well as help euthanize him. As they stepped back, it became a waiting game. For Newt, it was time for the farewell speech. Newt was never more thankful of their Drift connection—faint as it was—than he was now. He sent Tantō thoughts of every memory he had—of first seeing him in that ammonia tank, of seeing him alive, of the times they flew, and even the time when Tantō nearly killed him. Newt felt Tantō’s returning positive feelings—none of pain—in that kaiju emotional language, and that was all he needed. Newt didn’t let himself cry until Tantō was finally unconscious, because crying required thinking negative thoughts. Nothing should be negative in those last moments.

“I need—“ Newt’s voice cracked so he coughed and tried again. “I need his stats.”

“Pulse respiration and brain waves all dropping at a steady pace,” an assistant called out. “They look like they’re about to level out.”

Newt nodded as the first tear fell. Suddenly Raleigh’s hand was on his shoulder. “Are you sure you can do this? I can—“

“No,” Newt said forcefully, stepping forward. “I have to do it.”

Newt was shaking as he slipped the hose into Tantō’s mouth and gave the signal to turn it on. Hydrogen peroxide dribbled out of the hose and into Tantō’s mouth. Newt stepped back and watched it run for a few minutes before signaling to turn it off and taking it out. A lab assistant came by to take it, and then there was more waiting. This time for good. Newt finally let the tears flow freely as he watched Tantō’s last breaths. Raleigh’s arm was around him again but he barely felt it.

Newt didn’t need to hear the assistant call out Tantō’s final heartbeat. He knew the exact moment Tantō died whenever the Drift connection finally flickered out. Newt’s tears turned into sobs then, and he turned into Raleigh’s touch, hiding in the warmth of his embrace, so _so_ glad for his comforting presence. Newt had gone too long with a connection to Tantō, and the sudden absence was like ripping his heart out of his chest. Newt was extremely glad he’d spared Tantō that pain, but he hadn’t realized it would be the same for him. He hadn’t realized how much of an impact Tantō had made.

Newt clung to Raleigh for a long time. The Nest had cleared of everyone except the two of them and Tantō’s body—another arrangement Newt had made prior. When the pain of ripping away his mind-connection subsided (at least enough so that he could breathe), Newt turned and placed his palm on Tantō’s nose one last time.

“I’m gonna miss you, buddy,” Newt choked out. 


	6. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because I couldn't leave you guys with that sad note

“We’re going to be late!” Newt shouted into the bathroom door. It had been a year and a half since Tantō’s death, and since then, Newt and Raleigh had stayed on at the Shatterdome, but they moved into a double-room. Their relationship hadn’t been perfect. Newt tended to get distracted by science more than Raleigh would like, and Raleigh would be militaristic and distant at the worst times. But they worked it out, and soon found a rhythm.

“Calm down, I’m almost ready,” Raleigh said through the door.

Newt was putting on his shoes—lifting up his pant leg to reveal a brand-new tattoo of a kaiju that looked suspiciously like Tantō on his ankle—when Raleigh stepped out of the bathroom, slipping a white button-down over his arms—a tattoo similar to Newt’s visible on his shoulder. Newt never failed to lose his breath every time he saw Raleigh’s bare chest. Oh yeah, he was _so_ grateful for his boyfriend.

“I just don’t see why you of all people care that we’re late—why do you even want to go at all?” Raleigh asked as he fumbled with the buttons.

“Look, I made a bet with Hermann, ok?” Newt said defensively. “It’s hard to explain.”

Raleigh laughed. “Ok, whatever you say. Tie?”

Newt took the tie off the dresser and wrapped it around Raleigh’s neck. Raleigh knew how to tie a tie of course, but since Newt wore them every day, he could put it on faster. So Raleigh said. Newt had his suspicions, since every time Newt would finish, Raleigh always leaned in for a kiss. This time was no exception. As Newt pulled away, he stopped for a second as the scene hit him.

“I…I think I love you,” Newt blurted out.

Raleigh laughed at Newt’s horrified expression. “You finally figure that one out? Now, do you want to win a bet or do you want me to state the obvious?”

Newt’s grin could have split his face in half. He grabbed Raleigh in by his tie and pulled him down until their lips crashed together in a vigorous kiss. It didn’t last long—there was a bet to be won—but everything they needed to express was packed into that kiss.

 “Ok, let’s go,” Newt said calmly, dragging a dazed Raleigh out the door.

 

* * *

 

“Why are we here again?” Newt asked Raleigh as they stood awkwardly by a punch bowl as pitchy Christmas songs blared from tinny speakers. The cheap, sparkling decorations were giving Newt a headache. Or maybe he’d just had too much eggnog. Either way, office holiday parties were always awful, and Newt had no idea why the Shatterdome of all places had one.

“I’m thinking there was something about a bet…?” Raleigh teased.

Newt grunted. “Hermann isn’t even here yet.”

As soon as the words left his mouth, though, a two-year old crashed into his legs, screaming, “Uncle Newt!”

Newt bent down and picked up the little girl, whose gold curls bounced gleefully. “Hey ‘Bella, where’s Mommy and Daddy?”

Arabella pointed across the room where Hermann and his wife were talking to someone Newt didn’t know. Newt looked over at Raleigh. “I’ll be right back.”

Raleigh grinned as Newt went over to his friend, announcing, “I have a baby to deliver and winnings to collect.”

Hermann immediately took his child and walked Newt over to a more private corner.

“ _Must_ you be so rude, interrupting a conversation like that?” Hermann demanded.

“I don’t seem to recall you actually being a _part_ of that conversation,” Newt fired back.

Hermann rolled his eyes and decided to let Arabella down, but not before telling her sternly, “You stay with Mummy, alright? No running off elsewhere.”

Arabella nodded and waddled straight over to Vanessa. Newt looked at Hermann’s adoring expression, and something suddenly reminded him painfully of Tantō. Hermann noticed, unfortunately.

“Are you alright?”

"I just...I kinda miss him still, you know?” Newt knew Hermann would understand exactly what he was talking about.  
  
"Newton are you...crying?"  
  
"Shut up Hermann, of course I'm not crying," Newt snapped just as a traitor of a tear rolled down his cheek.  
  
"Oh Newton," Hermann sighed.  "Wait here a moment."  
  
"If you're going to get a camera you can just stop right there because I'm not crying." Newt said as Hermann talked to Vanessa, after which, she handed over a small, wrapped box. "I'm just not used to this crowd of human bodies and--"  
  
Newt shut up when Hermann thrust the box into his hands. Newt grunted but opened it anyway. What he saw inside took his breath away. There, nestled in tissue paper, was an exact replica of Tantō, even down to the scars on his head from their Drift so long ago.  
  
Newt took the figure with a trembling hand, unable to do anything but breathe shakily.  
  
"I know this isn’t technically your winnings, but you looked so--"  
  
"Hermann, you're the best!" Newt exclaimed, throwing his arms around the grumpy scientist.  
   
Hermann’s words suddenly got jumbled, and he barely choked out a, "You're welcome," before hugging Newt back.   
  
When they both stepped back, Newt looked down fondly at the kaiju figurine, but looked up again to say, "Hey, don't think I'm not going to call your predictions ridiculous, because they still are."  
  
Hermann rolled his eyes. "Well, your methods are still uncouth, so don't expect me not to remind you."

“Sorry for interrupting, but I saw hugging, so I figure something must be wrong,” Raleigh said, coming to stand by Newt’s side.

“Hermann’s being a decent human being for once in his life,” Newt said. “I think its cause for celebration.”

“Well we _are_ at a party,” Raleigh said.

“Oh, really? I hadn’t noticed,” Hermann said, completely willing to antagonize anyone who thought Newt was decent enough to date.

Newt gasped. “Hermann…did you just use sarcasm effectively? It’s a Christmas miracle!”

The clock struck midnight Hermann rolled his eyes and Raleigh laughed, slipping a hand in Newt’s. Newt looked down at the figure of Tantō and realized that it was that kaiju that made this moment happen. He couldn’t wish for anything more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, it's been a LONG journey and I've gone through so many ups and downs with this things it's not even funny. But we're here now and it's finally posted!   
> Thanks goes out to my lovely beta Loki, without whom made this fic something logical, interesting, and basically not word vomit.   
> I also want to thank my artist, Starfoozle, for her beautiful drawing of a cute baby kaiju.   
> I can't, of course, forget our mod, eternalshiva, who put up with all us crazy people and set this thing in motion.  
> Lastly I want to thank anyone who read this far because that means you didn't scroll past it, you didn't exit out of the page with a sigh of disgust and it means that my time was therefore worthwhile. As long as people read my work, I feel successful!


End file.
